Collateral Damage
by child-dragon
Summary: Jack has reprogrammed the digistruct network so that no one on Pandora save Hyperion can use it. No vehicles, no guns, no sword for Zero. The vault hunters are sent to find a wandering engineer with a curious nickname in the hopes that she can figure out how this happened and more importantly - how to fix it.
1. Ideas and Execution

_Author's Note: I... really shouldn't be writing this. I swore I was going to take a fanfiction break, but apparently my poor broken ego couldn't take not having adoration heaped upon it - I mean, I had an idea and I can only play Borderlands in short tidbits now because I can't snipe with this wrist brace on but I CAN type. So. We get to find out what all is happening with skag-girl during the events of Borderlands 2. This will take place just after the ascension of Sanctuary and before the capture of Bloodwing. If you haven't read Skag-girl yet, now would be a good time to do so. She's my OC._

_A note on Zero: I refuse to use a 0 in his name and I refuse to write in haiku. I have a love-hate relationship with his character. This will help swing it more towards love for the duration of writing the story._

* * *

Handsome Jack rarely held meetings face-to-face. He also rarely held meetings. There were body doubles for that and the executives littered about Hyperion, while not exactly trust-worthy, were at least competent to ensure no absolutely wretched project got implemented and that any major decisions were shuffled off to him. In a neat summary format, of course. Jack didn't care much for details. That was what being stinking rich with an entire company under his thumb did – it freed him up from having to deal with things like boardrooms and having to read through twenty-thousand plus words of blah blah blah business alignment and blah blah blah projected earnings. However, every once in a great while, an idea came through that was just so brilliant – so clever – that he had to meet with the individuals responsible. Sometimes the idea was so clever that he then had to kill the people that came up with it and take credit. This was not one of those times, however. He had an instinctual feeling that it might be useful to have scapegoats later on down the line. It was worthy of a meeting, at least.

The engineers responsible were arrayed in a conference room, uneasy in their chairs around the table. The room was conspicuously absent of any management, as whenever a meeting with Jack was called the management found reasons to be absent, just in case it was one of those 'kill everyone in the room' type meetings. That was why they were management and not dead. Jack was situated in his luxurious quarters, which occupied almost a square mile of the space station orbiting Pandora. He had a desk – used only occasionally – and a magnificent leather chair (no doubt from some endangered species or another, Jack hadn't really paid attention to the details of décor save ensuring it cost more than most yearly incomes) which was carefully tailored to make Jack look imposing when he sat in it. The boardroom was arrayed before him on the empty carpet as a hologram projection, just as he was currently appearing to them in some other part of the Hyperion corporate empire.

"So," Jack said benignly, steepling his fingers on the polished desk surface, "I just got done reading your proposal. Brilliant. I noticed it's a three phase plan – skip the first two and give me what phase three will result in. In one sentence or less."

The lead engineer cleared his throat nervously. Half the team was riveted in staring at Jack, the others were watching their leader.

"Phase three will be the elimination of Tediore as a competitor," he said.

"Okay. I'm intrigued. Back up to the first two phases."

Tediore guns were pieces of crap, but they were cheap pieces of crap and the things were everywhere, much like topless pictures of Moxxi. They were especially entrenched on poor worlds and Jack would very much like to see them ousted of their holds, so that Hyperion could move in and take over – both in terms of market-share and literally taking over. Atlas was reeling from its setbacks on Pandora and seemed content to let Hyperion be, Dahl and Torgue were always in the back of his mind as a problem, Jakobs and Vladof never seemed to give a damn about the competition, Maliwan was comfortable in their niche, and Jack never had any idea what the hell Bandit was up to, nor did he really care. As worthless as Tediore guns were, they were strong enough to pose a threat to Hyperion.

"Phase one will be a pilot of our program on a single world," the engineer said, "We'll install our devices onto strategic relay towers. They'll be set to self-destruct if anyone tampers with them, to ensure we cover our tracks if they're found. These will intercept a certain range of digistruct signals and build flaws into the constructed device – carefully randomized as to frequency to ensure a pattern doesn't develop. When someone attempts to use a Tediore gun, it could blow up in their face."

"Phase two will be a roll-out to surrounding worlds, mimicking the spread of a computer virus across inter-planetary communication lines as well as an increase in frequency of flaws on digistructed guns. This will be accompanied by a propaganda mission – not linked to Hyperion – that will spread rumors that the errors in the digistruct system were introduced by Tediore protocols and could potentially spread to more than just their guns. Hopefully, the world governments will start panicking and cutting Tediore out of their system."

"Phase three will see Tediore's revenue plummet, allowing Hyperion to swoop in and take over."

"I love it!" Jack laughed, leaning back into his chair and slapping the palm of one hand onto the desk. It made the engineers jump, but he didn't notice. "I'm gonna have to modify phase one though. Go ahead and pilot it on some other world – I don't care which – but I want a modified version of your boxes made that blocks all digistruct signals except those carrying a Hyperion signature."

He straightened in the chair, leaning forwards and resting his elbows on the desk surface. The engineers couldn't look away, their faces a mix of apprehension and curiosity.

"Ship those to Pandora," he said, "I want to bring the whole damn network down for those assholes."

* * *

Lilith surveyed the assembled vault hunters unhappily. Or rather, the lone assembled vault hunter. She supposed that perhaps she had gotten too comfortable dealing with Roland and Mordecai, that her expectations for reliability were too high. Still, considering what was at stake, she had expected a better turn-out than just Maya when she called for the four, citing an emergency. Maya, for her part, looked similarly unhappy and Lilith supposed the same thoughts were running through her sister siren's head.

"Where's the rest?" Lilith asked. Behind her, Roland was silent, content to let the two sirens handle this.

"Axton and Salvador are off doing a side-job for Scooter, so they're stranded" she replied, "I refuse to do anything for Scooter anymore."

Lilith wasn't sure if she wanted to hear the reasons around that one or not.

"And Zero?" she prompted.

Maya hesitated. Then a voice – mechanically breathy – came from outside.

"Here."

And the three turned to look as Zero dropped from somewhere up on the roof of the building onto the balcony. The lanky assassin walked in, cat-like in his grace, and perched near a wall, setting himself apart from the others. He never seemed to relax, Lilith reflected, he never walked easy and always seemed strung tight like a cable, ready to move in a heartbeat. That was probably what made him such a good assassin.

Still.

"You can use the front door next time," Lilith said crossly, "What's so appealing about our roof anyway?"

"Good view of the city." He paused, tilting his helmeted head to the side a fraction. "Quiet. Good for introspection."

"More like sulking that your sword no longer works," Maya said. Zero's head snapped s quare to hers and even though his eyes were not visible, there was the distinct impression that he was glaring at her – a cold stare, pitiless and baleful.

"That's actually what we called you here for," Roland interjected before the two could continue, "We need to find out why the digistruct network is down and how to bring it back up. There's someone outside of Sanctuary that we think may be able to help with this and Mordecai has been able to pin-point her last location in the Dahl Headlands. We need you to go there and find her. Do whatever it takes to secure her help."

"Since travel is down," Lilith continued, picking up when Roland paused, "I'll be phase-shifting the two of you to her coordinates. Once you're there, you're on your own. No vehicles. No returning to Sanctuary. Think carefully about what supplies you'll need, as we can't get anything to you once you're down there. Everything is offline."

"Mordecai will be able to brief you further on the specifics of this person we're sending you after,"Roland said, "Go get what you need and then return here."

Maya and Zero turned to go. Zero's long legs quickly carried him past Maya and he brushed past her in the hallway, taking the stairs before turning off into the hallway that led to the rooms that Roland had given the vault hunters. Or rather, the one room. It was lined with bunk-beds and Maya suspected that Roland was used to putting up guests for nights on end. Zero was already at the locker he used for his few belongings when Maya entered. She came up beside him, unlocking her own, and stared dourly at the contents. Guns. More guns. A few keepsakes she'd picked up here and there. A single shotgun. She sighed and unhooked a backpack and crouched, shoveling spare ammunition into the main part of the pack.

"If you bothered to organize you'll be able to fit more," Zero commented from above her. The siren gave a non-committal grunt and ignored his advice.

"It's going to weigh a lot as well," the assassin continued.

"Well, in case you weren't listening," Maya snapped back, "The digistruct network is down so we're not going to be able to buy ammunition from the vendors. What's inside is what's inside and the bandits have probably emptied them all out by now."

"So we kill the bandits and loot their bodies."

Maya looked up, watching as Zero removed a long thin blade from the locker, wrapped in leather, about the length of his forearm. He held it on his palms for a moment, regarding it, and then stepped back to find the best place to wear it. He settled for hooking the short sword to the small of his back, moving the shield over to the left hip to make room. Maya had never seen him use a real blade – she didn't even know he owned one.

"I'd rather not take chances," she said quietly. After a moment, Zero tilted his head in a way that Maya had come to realize meant assent.

"Here," he said, taking his own backpack from the locker and dropping it beside her, "Fill them halfway with ammo. I'll go see to the other supplies."

He left, hardly making a sound. Maya watched him go and as soon as he was out of eye-shot she turned her attention back to the packs, reluctantly reaching in to arrange the boxes of ammo into a neat stack along the bottom. Of course Axton and Salvador would chose now to get themselves stranded god knows where on Pandora on some perverted mission for Scooter. She frowned severely, irritated by both the thought of Scooter and the thought of going on this mission with no one but Zero for company. It wasn't that she distrusted or even disliked the assassin – it was just that he was wretchedly boring. Incredibly competent with a rifle, but a miserable conversationalist.

"Mordecai," Maya said, pausing to bring up the ECHO connection, "Tell me about this woman we're meeting."

Mordecai's features flashed into view at the corner of her HUD. There was nothing but the faint overlay of static for a moment and Maya could only assume that the sniper was thinking of the best place to start. He started to speak, stopped himself, and frowned severely. Then he nodded to himself.

"She's the orphaned daughter of Dahl engineers," he said, "She's paranoid, her sanity is questionable, she can't hit a building at five paces with a gun, she's on good terms with most of the bandit gangs, and she keeps Pandora's infrastructure running. Her name is Tasha, but everyone calls her skag-girl. If she sics Bunny on you, just yell at her that I sent you and she will hopefully call him off."

The connection was cut before she could ask questions. The siren remained frozen where she was for a moment, taking in everything Mordecai had just said. She supposed this wasn't the first time they'd dealt with a crazy orphan – there had been Tiny Tina, after all. What was it about the original four vault hunters that attracted such company? Her ECHO flashed into life again. Mordecai.

"So I forgot to mention," he said and Maya detected a faint slur to his words. He was drinking, apparently. "We've been trying to contact her since the network went down three days ago. She hasn't responded."

"You said she's paranoid," Maya pointed out.

"No, you don't understand." There was a layer of urgency undercutting Mordecai's words. "She always responds to me when I ECHO her. _Always_. Find out what's happened, and quick."

The ECHO cut off once more and Maya had a feeling that Mordecai would not have anything more to say. Maya shook her head in dismay. The digistruct network down – no doubt the work of Jack, although no one knew how – herself being sent out on a mission to find someone who might be dead already with only Zero for company, and the whole planet just going to hell around her at the hands of Hyperion. This was not what she had anticipated when she came here to learn about her siren heritage.


	2. Remains

_Author's Note: This chapter is brought to you by badass fire threshers. Because apparently I can't last for five seconds without the damn thing one-shot killing me. I'm gonna try again tomorrow. I need a new gun. A better gun._

_I think we all know that Zero would be acting very differently if they didn't need Tasha, which is why it makes me smile. See? Love-hate relationship with the guy._

* * *

The world was white and Maya could see nothing. There was a tremendous pressure around her, like the air had grown denser and it pushed inward against her skin. Her heart pounded in her chest, the feel of it carrying up through her lungs so that she felt she was breathing with each hammer of her heart. Then the world faded to black and purple, the outlines of shapes as thin luminescent lines, and then the pressure around her was gone entirely and the world took on color and texture. She let out a shaky breath. Nearby, Zero was down on one knee and she could see the even rise and fall of his shoulders as he struggled to regain composure. The phase shifts were hard on everyone. Even Maya, a siren herself, found them only mildly bearable. She wondered if it would change when she knew how to do this for herself. She'd not thought to ask Lilith that yet.

"Alright," Maya said, turning in a circle to get her bearings, "We're not getting back to Sanctuary until the digistruct network is back up. You got any ideas on where to go from here?"

"No," he replied, standing, "I don't know the Dahl Headlands. Map says there is a destroyed Crimson Lance outpost to the north, now inhabited by bandits. South is another, larger, bandit camp that controls this area."

"Bandit camps," Maya mused, "Let's go south. Mordecai said she was in contact with bandits. They might be able to tell us where she is."

She oriented herself and started hiking across the dry dirt. Zero easily kept pace just to her right. It was clear the assassin could outdistance her and Maya wondered why he bothered slowing his stride to match her own, shorter, one.

"How do you plan to make the bandits cooperate?" he asked. She grinned.

"I'm a goddamn siren," she proclaimed, "That's how. And you're pretty scary too."

His hand fell to the grip of the shortsword he now carried. Maya knew what he was thinking. Yes, he could be very frightening, and there was something far scarier about a naked blade than the rifle he carried slung across his back. He'd make them bleed and that would be enough. They'd talk.

The hike wore on and Maya was finally starting to feel the exhaustion reach through even her combat-honed body. Her shoulders ached from the pull of the backpack and she was grateful Zero had stopped her from completely filling it with ammunition, although she would never tell him this out-loud. Her legs hurt and her feet were numb and for all this, the scenery had barely changed. She was starting to realize just how insidiously evil Jack's plan was here – she'd kill for a runner. A sideways glance revealed nothing of Zero's condition. The black suit he wore turned him into an enigma. She had once heard Lilith and Roland talking of Mordecai and how he used to wear a hood that covered everything except his mouth and how difficult it had been to read him at first, until they got used to it. Lilith had no pity for them. She had to figure out Zero.

"Please tell me you're as tired as I am," she sighed to the assassin. He turned his head in her direction, not breaking his pace.

"You can keep going," he replied. She couldn't tell if it was a statement or a question.

"Of course. But that doesn't mean I'm not getting really tired. Lilith didn't drop us as close as she planned to, I think. We've been hiking for nearly ten hours now, I say we get some rest so we're not close to dropping when we actually get there."

They'd taken a few breaks in there, to drink some water and eat some food. At least, Maya did. Zero just stood off a distance, staring away at the horizon. Even his endurance had to give at some point, however.

"Prudent," he finally said, stopping and shouldering his backpack off onto the ground, "Six hours acceptable?"

"Yes."

She'd be fine on little sleep. Zero was already moving away, setting up markers that would protect the boundaries of their encampment. If anything with a body mass above a certain threshold came within range, it'd send an alert to their HUDs that would wake them. It was far better than setting a watch, as this way both of them could rest. Maya pulled some rations out of her backpack and settled herself on the ground to eat. Zero returned and rummaged through his own backpack, finally turning his back to her. The assassin did need sustenance, apparently, and Maya grinned wryly. This was not unusual, for him to keep his back to the rest on the rare occasions he had to shed part of his helmet. She'd decided that her curiosity was not worth earning the assassin's enmity. Not yet, at least.

"I think this is all retaliation for the whole Outlook business," Maya said.

"Logical."

"He had Sanctuary dead-to-rights and then Lilith snatches it out from under him. So he's already angrier then a skag that's been shot in the face. Then Angel gets us that fast travel station – which uses the digistruct network – and then bam – the whole damn network is brought down only a week later. We hadn't even had time to really catch out bearings and now everyone is stranded. If Mordecai managed to get that information Roland sent him after, there's no way he'd be able to get it back to Sanctuary, not without being able to fly."

"He has Bloodwing."

"Okay, there is that. But that's just one instance – think about everyone else that depends on this network. Pandora is screwed right now."

"Humanity adapts."

"But can it adapt fast enough this time?" Maya was not certain why this seemed to be dissolving into an argument. She frowned and tried to rein herself in. "You know what I mean. Seems every time we make headway, Jack turns around and sucker-punches us."

"I do know what you mean," he replied quietly, "But suppose for a moment we do lose this. That everything keeps piling on until we cannot keep up, that we cannot undo what has been done fast enough and Sanctuary crumbles and we – all of us – fall."

"Then Jack would own Pandora," she said quietly.

"And humanity would adapt and continue on. Somehow."

It was rare that Zero talked so much. Maya considered his words carefully, for when he strung so many together it generally meant something. Her initial reaction was to reject them, to deny that they could lose and that someone so vile – so evil – as Jack could win to sow ruin upon the people of this planet. But underneath that anger she saw something else that Zero was offering. It was hope, a cold and barren hope, but hope nonetheless. No matter how bad things got, it would not mean utter destruction. Something would carry on and then, perhaps, in time things would change again and something better would come of it. It would only take time, lots of time. And she might not be around to see it. But it was a hope of sorts.

"You're a bundle of joy," Maya sighed, "I'm going to sleep."

There was nowhere she'd be more comfortable than another, so she simply dropped back onto the dirt and rolled onto her side. She closed her eyes and remained there, lulled by her own exhaustion into a sort of half-sleep, which was about all she could manage during Pandora's seemingly endless day-cycle. Just when she was at the edge of dropping off there was a slight sound and she opened her eyes, her dulled mind thinking that this was nothing to be alarmed about as there was no alert in her HUD. She saw Zero on his feet, a yard off, his sword out of the scabbard and he stood there for a moment, poised, and then stepped forwards. The blade caught the filtered sunlight as it moved and then he froze in a new stance and then moved again into another. It was like watching liquid flowing form one container to another. She drifted back to sleep and when she dreamed, it was of the wind through a gully.

* * *

Maya woke before Zero. The assassin was a short distance off, on his back, his sword in its scabbard and laying across his chest. He always slept with his weapons close at hand. Maya climbed to her feet, wincing at how sore her muscles were from sleeping on the ground, and shuffled off to dismantle the beacons that had watched while they slept. Zero stirred at the noise and came alert, rolling to sit up and then standing, clipping the sword back at his waist. The two cleared up camp without a word, shouldering their backpacks once more and setting out south.

They hiked for another four hours before coming across a sign of civilization. There were thin plumes of smoke, the sort that one would see from campfires, barely visible against the pallid sky. Maya turned to look at Zero and he did the same, only a more subtle gesture on his part. The two quickened their pace and Maya knew that her own urgency was because of what she had heard in Mordecai's voice.

She always responded to his ECHOs, he had said. Something had happened.

Zero, for his part, was only eager. He was never content to remain in one place for long, both physically and mentally.

The bandit camp – or the remains of it – unfolded before the two. They slowed to a stop and beside her, Zero dropped to a knee to raise his rifle to look through the scope. He was searching for any sign of movement. Maya did not want to tell him it was a waste of effort. The place was burnt and dead. The smoke plumes were only the last guttering of fires that had lingered where the collapsed walkways and platforms had piled up. There were once walls, metal palisades, and even those were demolished, scattered as if some invisible hand had swept them away, like a petulant child. Craters hugged the boundaries of the camp and she knew these too well. Something twisted inside her.

"I think things just piled up beyond what we can handle," Maya choked out, "Jack bombarded this camp days ago. They're all dead."

There was a flash on her HUD. The image of Angel took up the upper-center portion, her bright eyes as unnaturally vivid as ever. Maya's fingers clenched into a fist.

"There were a number of Hyperion engineers in this area five days ago," Angel said to them, "The local bandits murdered them, so Jack retaliated. I'm not sure what you're hoping to find here – there's nothing of significance."

Maya glanced sideways at Zero. The assassin had not moved, still scanning the base systematically for movement.

"We have an idea of how to get the digistruct network back online," Maya replied, "Don't suppose you know anything about this?"

"No." Angel looked sad briefly, then the image flickered and returned to the normal loop. "I've been cut out of this one. Apparently, I'm no longer... reliable."

"Punishment for Outlook?"

A smile.

"Undoubtedly. If I find anything, I shall inform you."

"Alright. And Angel? Quit spying on us."

"Fine. Sorry. I'll just... eavesdrop on Axton and Salvador, I suppose."

The connection was cut. Zero stood, but did not return his rifle to its spot on his back, instead keeping it in his hands down by his hip.

"I still don't trust her," Maya muttered, "The camp clear?"

"Yes. Let's go look closer anyway, if nothing else to confirm the death."

She didn't have to ask him to elaborate on whose death they were trying to find evidence of. The two made their way into the camp, carefully picking their way through debris. There weren't even bloodstains – the intense heat and force of the explosions had simply obliterated people where they hit. Here and there were bodies that had been caught at the edge of the blast radius, or been crushed by falling structures. They were thick with flies and the stench made Maya give them a wide berth. Zero seemed unaffected. In an area near the center of camp, where a clearing had existed before and existed now, ringed by the shattered remains of buildings, a trio of bodies was situated, all in close proximity to each other. There were two laying prone and one propped up, slumped over the two, as if it had died protecting the others. Then Zero's arm shot out, blocking Maya's path and bringing her up short. She squinted at the figure. Most of the bodies were mutilated from debris or severely burned from the fire. This one seemed completely intact. Maya's breath caught in her throat. What if it wasn't a body at all?

Beside her, Zero was setting his rifle aside, moving slowly so as not to make a sound, and drawing his pistol. Maya did the same and the two fanned out, taking slow and even steps, trying to avoid alerting the figure of their approach. Her back – for Maya could only assume that hair that long meant female – was to them. Maya supposed she only had to get into range to phaselock the woman and then they would know if she was truly alive and if she was the skag-girl they sought.

There was a clatter of something moving in the debris. Maya turned just in time to see a monstrous skag come flying out of the shelter of some fallen sheets of metal and then it was airborne, jaws stretched wide, claws extended before it. The siren reacted on instinct. A globe of purple energy surrounded the creature, suspending it in midair as it writhed and thrashed helplessly. She turned to see the woman in the center of the clearing diving forwards for something, leaping over the two bodies and rolling onto her back with a shotgun in her hands. Zero was closing on her and she fired, the recoil throwing the weapon up and sending her bullets wild. Then the assassin's hand closed over the barrel and wrenched it out of her hands.

She surged up then and there was a flash of metal. Zero countered the knife with his forearm, blocking her at the wrist and stopping the blade inches from his abdomen. His other hand snapped forwards and the blow hit right below the ribcage. She doubled over, dropping the knife, then twisted to run. She didn't get far. Zero sprinted after her, easily catching up, and he snaked one ankle in front her own, sending her flying forwards. He caught her in mid-fall, redirecting her to land on her back and he dropped to a knee, putting it on her stomach to pin her there, one hand holding her dominant wrist trapped, the other hand putting the barrel of his pistol just beneath her chin. Maya saw the woman kicking, still struggling to get free, clearly given over to mindless panic.

"Tasha!" Maya called. With a skag so close by, there was no doubt who the woman's identity was. "Call off Bunny! I can't hold him for much longer. Please!"

Nothing. The woman was wild with terror. Then Zero leaned forwards, putting his helmet close to her ear and Maya couldn't hear what was said. It seemed he spoke forever as the phaselock grew harder and harder to hold. Cold sweat beaded on Maya's brow. She didn't want to kill the skag if it could be helped, but if the beast wasn't called off and her phaselock broke, she'd have to. Then Zero backed off, pulling the gun away and releasing Tasha from his hold. She sat up, slowly, as if in a trance. Maya decided to try again.

"Tasha!" she called over, "Call off Bunny! Mordecai sent us!"

Something cleared in her eyes. She scrambled to her feet and just as the phaselock broke, Maya could hear the girl yelling something almost unintelligible at the skag. Bunny hit the ground and snarled, making to leap at the siren again, but he hesitated and Tasha came running. The skag's focus changed and it bounded towards his master, who ran her hands over his ridged back. The skag's head was at the girl's shoulder.

"So Mordecai sent you," Tasha said quietly, "He even told you about Bunny."

"He didn't say Bunny was a skag," Maya panted, "I just made an educated guess there."

Maya studied her. She was terribly skinny, her vest clung to hollow ribs and her belt bore holes that had clearly been punched by hand to cinch it up tighter. Her shoulders and hips were awkward points. There were miniscule gold studs in her earlobes but otherwise she bore no other ornamentation. Her hair was mouse-brown, wild and long. There were strips of cloth wrapped around her forearms and around the bicep of one arm, clearly hiding something away. She carried a pistol at her belt and Maya had to wonder why she hadn't drawn that instead of the knife.

Zero came up behind the woman. He was polite enough to scuff the earth as he walked so that she would hear his approach. Tasha spun about and stared at the assassin. She had to look up to do so. Her shoulders were back and for a moment there was defiance on her eyes, then her gaze flitted past him to the center of the camp and something inside her crumpled. She collapsed in on herself, as if all strength was gone, and then – amazingly – she fell forwards into Zero. He caught her and the two sunk to the ground, Tasha curled in with her head on his chest, weeping desperately. Her shoulders shook with the shudders of each sob and then she hit Zero on the shoulder with one fist, then again. He looked up at Maya, turned his wrists upward in a gesture that Maya didn't have to see his face to recognize.

He had no fucking clue what to do about this. Maya grinned. She walked past him, still on his knees with Tasha curled against him like he was the only stability in a drowning world. The siren patted Zero on the shoulder and leaned in close.

"Good luck with that," she whispered, and kept walking.

Behind her, Zero hesitantly put one hand on Tasha's back, the closest he'd get to giving her a hug, Maya supposed. Tasha seemed to calm somewhat at the touch. Maybe the assassin would figure it out. Maya certainly didn't have a damned clue as to what this was all about – but then again, Mordecai had said she wasn't far from insanity. The siren sighed and walked to where the two bodies lay and studied them. A man and a woman. The man wasn't terribly big and he appeared to have died from being impaled, no doubt by some falling debris. Tasha must have pulled him free and carried him here. The woman had likely burned, as half her hair was gone and there was extensive burns along her almost-naked torso. It wasn't as bad as some of the other bodies, which made Maya wonder if she'd been pulled free from the wreckage before expiring. She brought up her ECHO and opened a connection with Mordecai.

"We found Tasha," she said, "She's alive."

"Gracias a Dios," Mordecai breathed, "So why wasn't she answering ECHO?"

"Yeah, I'm not sure on that yet. She's a mess – emotionally, that is. Found her in the remains of the bandit camp here, it's been leveled by orbital bombardment. Apparently they murdered some Hyperion engineers and pissed Jack off. She's currently crying all over Zero and Zero has no fucking clue what to do about that. Kinda hilarious, actually."

"Maya." Mordecai's voice brought her full attention to bear. She had rarely heard him sound so serious. "Is there a woman among the dead?"

"Yeah, she's got the body laid out right next to someone else-"

Mordecai swore some more in that foreign language he sometimes slipped in, in a low voice. Then he shook his head and collected himself.

"Ehhh," he groaned, "This isn't entirely bad, I suppose. In fact – nah, I'm getting too hopeful here. Just – get the bodies buried, alright? Both of them. Don't worry about the rest of the bandits. Then get Tasha moving, get her away from there and see if you can get her to one of the relay towers and get her working on that problem. She should have a runner nearby you can use. I'll be heading in your direction, should be there in a few days."

"What about the intel Roland sent you after?"

"Screw it, I ain't getting shit done with the digistruct network down. Ain't no one is. Tell Tasha I'll see her in a few days. That'll help."

The connection broke. Maya shook her head in dismay. She had hoped Mordecai could explain all this – but he seemed determined to be as enigmatic as Zero. Maybe it was a sniper thing. The siren glanced around the burned camp, then set off to start searching for something she could use as a shovel. She had a bad feeling that she'd be digging the graves by herself.


	3. Misplaced Retribution

_Author's Note: Took a bit longer to write this than I anticipated. Got caught up in writing a short story as a submission for a local publication near where I live. Keep your fingers crossed that it gets published._

* * *

Maya started digging not far from where the bodies lay, as the area was already clear and it was as good a spot as any. The wreckage might even help deter scavengers from the grave site. She didn't get too far into it, only lay out the length of each ditch, when Bunny trotted over and plopped his bulk into one of the trenches. He started digging as well, sending great scoops of dirt flying between his paws with each scrape of his forelegs. Maya couldn't tell if the skag was trained for this or he just enjoyed digging and Maya had loosened up the topsoil enough to get him interested. Either way, it seemed the most help she was about to get. Zero was still kneeling there with Tasha, who at least wasn't clinging to the assassin now. The two didn't seem to be talking, just sitting in silence, which was appropriate for Zero at least. She wasn't so certain about Tasha.

After a time, the assassin joined Maya by the progressing graves. Bunny had made a decent go of it, but the skag had grown bored and wondered off. She was up to her waist now and sweat soaked her shirt and plastered her blue hair to her face. She pushed it out of her eyes, leaving a streak of dirt behind on her forehead, and glared up at the assassin.

"Come to help?" she asked pointedly. Zero seemed to not hear her and she scowled. She'd phase-lock the bastard to get his attention if she didn't think he'd retaliate.

"I think those bodies are kin of hers in some way," he said, "She's not saying it, but her grief is focused enough to make me suspect."

"Mordecai would know," she grunted, stabbing the shovel into the bottom of the grave with more force than necessary, "Bastard isn't saying anything either. Makes me think that if that's the case, we're not supposed to know it. Don't say anything."

"I wasn't going to." She heard the irritation in his voice.

"So how'd the whole crying thing work out?" she asked, deciding to direct the conversation to something even more awkward, so long as he was standing there letting her do all the work.

"I'm an assassin," he replied and this time there was reproach in his voice, "How many times do you think I've been hired for revenge killings, by a client bereaved after the death of a loved one?"

"I haven't the faintest."

"Enough. I'm loathe indulge it though."

"You seemed bewildered enough."

"I'm confused as to why she clung to me and not you. You're a woman."

She slammed the shovel down, point-first, into the ground and rounded on him, hands on her hips.

"Alright," she said tersely, "Explain that one."

He tilted his head sideways a touch, as if confused by her sudden flare of anger.

"It's simple. Women will trust another woman easier than a man. When compared with a faceless figure, I would have thought she would turn towards something representative of security and safety."

"I can buy that," Maya replied, hauling herself out of the ditch, "I can. Honest. And since we're doing this stereotype bullshit today, that means as a big tough man – at least, I assume you're a man – you should be the one digging the graves. Because you're all manly and strong. Go on. I'm going to go be a woman and comfort Tasha."

"You know that was not my intent." He sounded reproachful. Maya paused in her anger.

"I know," she finally admitted, "But I'm tired, sweaty, and covered in dirt. It's still your turn."

Maya stalked away, not turning to even check if Zero was doing as she asked. After a moment she heard the chuff of the shovel striking dirt and knew that he was. Of course. The graves had to be dug and as menial as it was, Zero was not so proud that he wouldn't do whatever necessary to accomplish his goal. Tasha was sitting alone, her back to everything, staring out at the shattered wreck of the compound. Maya found a convenient patch of dirt to sit on close by.

"So," she said carefully, "Zero told you anything about who we are and why we're looking for you?"

"No," she replied softly, "He said nothing, actually. All I know is that Mordecai sent you."

"You're awfully trusting."

Her face hardened somewhat, grew more closed.

"I trust Mordecai," she replied tersely, "and the other three. I don't know you, but if he sent you, then I'll trust you as well."

"Alright. I'm Maya. That's Zero. I'm a siren, he's an assassin."

"Everyone in their place. What's my role?"

There was weight to her question. She wasn't quite the helpless girl Maya had first seen, crying in Zero's arms. Something was breaking through.

"An engineer. Handsome Jack has brought down the digistruct network and we're not sure how, but we have to get it up and running again."

Tasha bolted to her feet. She stalked a pace away from Maya, hands clenched tight into fists.

"Son of a BITCH," she snarled, "Why didn't Mordecai tell me!?"

"You weren't answering ECHO," Maya replied, but the woman didn't appear to be listening.

"I swear, I'm going to rip Jack's intestines out and feed them to Bunny while he lays there screaming. Then I'll shove his own eyeballs down his throat and let him choke on them." There was a pause. "But I think I'll get the network back up first, just to really piss him off."

"You seem to really hate Jack," Maya said carefully. Not that it was an uncommon sentiment. Tasha whirled on the siren and her thin face was twisted up in anger.

"He screws with my network. Keeps trying to take over Pandora's infrastructure so I keep having to go in and reroute crap and rip his controls off of stuff. There's almost two networks now, Jack's and mine, made of the leftovers of the Dahl infrastructure and reinforced with the old Atlas segments in the areas where Jack has just blown up the old and rebuilt with his own. I bury most of it, there's underground power cables riddling this planet now. We might have to do the same with the digistruct network, but for now I'll settle for just getting it back online. Does this have anything to do with why this outpost got bombarded?"

Maya considered. The truth would come out eventually, she finally decided, and this way there'd be no story to keep straight.

"Possibly," she said, "The bandits here murdered a handful of Hyperion engineers and Jack retaliated."

"I didn't hear about the engineers," Tasha said quietly, "But then again, there's a lot I don't know about. I don't... visit here often.

She shook herself, visibly changing her train of thought back to the problem at hand.

"There's a relay tower on the other side of the bandit checkpoint that's part of the digistruct network," Tasha said, "We'll start there."

"You have a runner, right?"

"Yeah. It's been modified a bit so it'll fit everyone. I took out the turret gun to make room for Bunny, but he's too big for the turret now so I've got a hitch in back he rides on. I just can't turn real sharp or he falls off."

"You really trust that skag is tame?"

Tasha's face twisted up in a thoughtful frown.

"I think so, I've had him a long time. I've got a shock collar on him that might drop him if he ever turns on me, but he's gotten big enough now that I'm no longer so confident. I'm hoping it'll stun him enough to give me time to put a lot of bullets through his head if that ever happens."

She was so calm about the idea of putting down her beloved skag. Maya shook her head in surprise.

"I can't imagine Mordecai talking that way about Bloodwing," she murmured, "He'd lose it if anything happened to that bird."

"Yeah," Tasha agreed, just as quiet, "I think he'd see that the world burned in vengeance. But I didn't say I'd take losing Bunny well, either. I mean, he's-"

She trailed off, looking at the devastation around her as if seeing it anew all over again. There was something in her eyes, a hurt that ran so deep that Maya believed it had to be very, very old. It made her look tired, as if she was ready to drop and never move again, as if she was simply done with the world around her.

"-he's all I got left now," she finally finished, then she shoved her thumbs into the loop of her belt and walked off towards where Zero was still working on the graves.

She detoured, briefly, into the ruins and emerged carrying an extra shovel. She carried this to the half-finished graves and climbed in alongside Zero, whistling as she did so for Bunny. The skag came running and leapt obediently into the other hole, after a moment Tasha saw a spray of dirt start flying out of the grave. With the extra help, it would not take long for the holes to be dug. Maya wandered off to see if she couldn't find some tarps to wrap the bodies in.

* * *

There was no ceremony. Maya and Zero simply carried the bodies into the graves, the three filled them in, and Tasha paused for a moment over the two mounds, seemingly undecided on if anything more should be done. Then her back straightened and she walked deliberately away, catching up the shotgun as she did so. Zero and Maya hung back, watching.

"Bandit checkpoint, huh?" Maya said casually.

"She might be able to get us through," Zero replied.

"There's an enormous bounty on both our heads."

"Keep Tasha alive then, when the shooting starts."

That agreed upon, the two vault hunters followed Tasha out of the ruined complex. There was a runner off to one side, nestled in a hollow where the destruction had caved inwards and created a cove of twisted metal. It was dingy, the paint nearly entirely worn off, and the turret had been stripped of everything save a tarp covering the top and some storage bins both inside and welded to the outside hull. A hitch was on the back, up above the engines, and a grate was attached to this, barely wide enough for Bunny to fit on. The skag was clearly used to the routine, for he clambered up with ease and then waited patiently while Tasha drew some cable across his body and clipped it to the edge of the grate. He'd be able to slip free, Maya noted, but it'd keep him in place for all but the roughest of driving. Zero was already climbing into the turret and Maya reluctantly followed. She had reservations about riding in such a precarious manner, but as Tasha had promised there was more room than anticipated without the seat or the gun. The floor was low enough that both could crouch to stay out of the wind. As long as Tasha didn't roll the runner, they'd be safe.

"Scooter would piss himself if he saw the modifications she's done to this thing," Maya muttered, easing herself in opposite Zero.

The assassin was perched on his heels, forearms resting on his knees. It was not a position that conserved space but apparently Maya's comfort was secondary to Zero's need to perch. She wondered if it was assassin instincts, that he always be ready to move in moment's notice. The siren grunted as she flattened the side of her body against the wall of the turret, her feet winding up somewhere just behind Zero's heels, her own legs pressed uncomfortably close to his.

"I was under the impression you did not like Scooter," Zero replied.

"He's..." She blew out a breath. "He's smart enough in some things, okay, but in everything else? Not so much. And he can go searching for his own damn pornography instead of asking us to steal it when we're out shooting bandits..."

"Axton thought it was an amusing request."

"I don't." She paused. "You don't."

"I don't," he agreed.

The runner growled into life. The engine, for being severely under-maintained, still worked just fine. Tasha brought it out easy and the acceleration was gentle, a far cry from Maya's preferred driving style. Certainly, she didn't bang the runner into everything like some of the other members of her team did, but she also enjoyed unloading the throttle as soon as there were no obstacles directly in her path. There was something about the feel of a machine being brought to life that appealed to her. However, Tasha had her three passengers in mind and kept the runner at an even pace and a level ride. They reached the bandit checkpoint at Pandora's long sundown.

Maya's ECHO came to life. The contact was unlabeled but Tasha's voice was unmistakable. The siren had to wonder how Tasha had gotten kicked off the network – or if she'd even been on it to begin with – and how she managed to get herself back on as an unknown registry.

"Pull the tarp up and stay under it," she instructed, "I'll leave this ECHO channel open so you can hear what's going on – if it sounds like it's about to turn bad, bail me out. Otherwise, stay put. And by bad, I mean someone is seconds away from putting a bullet in my head."

Maya thought this an odd warning. Zero put it together quicker.

"They're going to hurt you," he said, emotionless. Maya thought of the scars littering the woman's arms, but Tasha only laughed a little breathlessly.

"It's all posturing. This is an offshoot branch of the bandit camp back there, see, and while there's enough ties to keep the two from outright war, relations are still a bit tense. They know me, I know them, they're still not convinced I'm not spying each time I pass through. It could get a bit hostile, but I shouldn't get hurt."

The runner drifted to a stop and fell into idle, then Tasha cut the engine entirely. Maya was aware of a change in Zero, as if he were coming to another level of alertness, although outwardly he had not moved. She wondered what it was, if it was a tightening in his muscles that she only subconsciously saw, or if her siren senses were detecting something on another level entirely. From outside the runner she could hear footsteps moving away and then there was silence. A handful of minutes passed before she could hear anyone talking over the ECHO.

"They're all dead, Burn," Tasha said. Hell of a greeting. There was a lull and Maya realized that this was going to be a one-sided conversation as the other participants weren't close enough for the ECHO to pick up.

"Just me now." Tasha's voice was tight. "You can take up the gang's name again, if you wanted. I won't – no – I gave that all up."

Another pause, longer this time.

"I haven't set foot in Sanctuary since the Crimson Lance left Pandora and you damn well know it. My only loyalties are to myself and I'd be appreciative if you figured that out. Now get the fucking gates open and let me through."

There was another voice now, apparently the other speaker was moving closer. Maya strained to hear what was being said.

"-never let you have it," the voice said, a man's, "I guess that really does mean he's dead. Let me see."

"Try and touch it and you'll see it quite well when I shoot you in the face," Tasha replied, "Back off. It's my shotgun now. He owed me – I killed my first boyfriend for it."

"Ain't nobody stupid enough to date you, psycho-bitch."

"I love you too, Burn," she murmured, "Thanks for not being a prick about letting me through this time."

"Yeah, well." A pause. "Ain't nobody left for you to spy for. And we owe you for fixing our generator last month."

Silence again. Then Tasha spoke once more and Maya's blood went cold.

"Burn," she said slowly, "Those people you have strung up there. Who are they?"

"Beats the hell outta me. Some damned Hyperion engineers we caught sneaking around. Want a closer look? We took our time on 'em."

"Sure." Tasha's voice was low. "How long ago did you kill them?"

And the ECHO cut off. Maya snapped her head up to regard Zero. Her heart was pounding. She remembered what Angel had told the two of them and then how she had relayed that very piece of information to Tasha. Jack's orbital bombardment had been retribution – and he'd hit the wrong encampment. Tasha was a smart woman. She'd put it all together and then – Maya remembered how she had thrown herself at Zero. The siren had no doubt that once the pieces fell in place, Tasha would pull her knife, regardless of the odds.

"She did ask us to bail her out if she were about to die," Maya whispered, her hand falling to the pistol at her waist.

"Yes," Zero agreed, "I'll cover you. Get to Tasha before she gets herself killed."

And Maya threw back the tarp and the two vault hunters leapt from the runner, weapons readied.


	4. Legacy

_Author's Note: Sometimes I feel my character's take on a life of their own and I'm just chronicling it, because I did not have this in mind when I started and didn't see it coming until the words were half-written._

* * *

Burn had left men to watch the runner. Maya registered this and from that second on, instinct took over. There was simply no time for logical thought. She had her pistol sighted on the nearest before her feet hit the ground and kick of the recoil against her palm was only a distant sensation. He staggered backwards, then dropped and the streamer of blood fell after him like a discarded ribbon. To the siren's right, Zero was landing with a knee in the bandit's chest. That thin sword of his was drawn and Maya watched as he jerked his arm back, an elbow crushing the man's face, and then stepped around behind him, like changing partners in a dance, and slipped the blade backwards into the man's stomach. Then the two were running, Zero sheathing his sword and bringing his rifle down off his back. He fell to one knee once he had a clear view of the outpost's gate and Maya kept going.

She gestured and the first of the two gate guards was phaselocked. The retort of Zero's rifle dropped the other. Once she was confident Zero had re-sighted, she dropped the phaselock, and as she ran past the second guard toppled, his head nothing but a shattered ruin. Inside, Maya could see Tasha standing beneath the bodies of the Hyperion engineers, twisting at the end of the ropes used to hang them from an overhead girder. She seemed frozen in place, even as the bandits around her broke into chaos at the sight of a single woman storming the gates, gun ready. The biggest of them – a man with hair dyed an unnatural shade of red – was yelling something and Maya paused a moment to raise her pistol and fire. She dropped one of his men, the rest of the bullets were deflected by his shield. Then he was grabbing at Tasha and the woman crumpled.

For a moment, Maya thought he'd killed her, though she hadn't seen how. Tasha was simply dead weight. Then the siren was moving again, strafing the remaining bandits, and Zero seemed to be picking off the ones on the walls to keep them from sniping down at her. Burn had bent over to catch Tasha as she fell and one hand held her by the front of her vest, the other was moving to grab the back of her hair. His fingers closed on empty air, for he had drawn her body close in trying to keep her from hitting the ground, and now she was within distance of him as well. Her forehead slammed against the bridge of his nose and her hands closed on either side of his neck. Then she swung herself up, locking her legs around his waist, trapping their bodies together and she dropped one hand to her waist and came back with a knife. Burn was staggering backwards and Maya realized the gunfire had abruptly ceased. The bandits were watching now, only a handful paying attention to Maya who carefully lowered her pistol as well. No one could shoot at either combatant, they were locked too close.

Burn managed to get a hand on the back of Tasha's neck and he pried at her, like trying to dislodge a rodent once its teeth was in, and reluctantly Tasha was pulled free, her knife leaving behind a swatch of blood across Burn's back and arm. He threw her to the ground, then dropped to a knee and cocked his fist back.

"Zero," she whispered into the ECHO, "I can't drop him in one hit. I'm not a straight enough shot."

"I am."

"Then take him down!"

The crack of bone against bone was audible and Tasha jerked once, then went limp, her head turned away from Maya. She'd have to phaselock Burn if Zero didn't just take the damn shot already.

"Tasha said not to intervene unless she was seconds from death."

She became aware of the fact she was being slowly ringed by bandits. They'd not yet committed to trying to kill her again yet, but it was clear that the outcome of the fight in the center of the outpost would determine that. Burn was drawing his fist back for another hit, his knuckles rimmed with blood, and then Tasha moved. Her left arm was pinned by Burn's hand, but she twisted, flipping her entire body on her side, and her knife blade went into the chest, through the ribs. She ripped it down, opening up Burn's side and he fell away, trying to scream and instead choking on his own blood as it filled his ruined lung. Tasha staggered to her feet and Maya could see her chin was coated in blood. She turned and spat some to the ground, then stalked over to Burn and kicked him, just above the ugly gash she'd left in his chest. Then she whistled, high and clear.

Bunny came running from somewhere outside the compound. The bandits scattered out of his path and the skag skidded to a stop beside the still-living Burn. Tasha snapped something, terse, and the skag's mouth stretched open and latched onto to the body at the wound Tasha had torn. He jerked his thick neck side to side, and after a moment backed away, bringing with him a slick piece of soft meat that had to be Burn's lung. The man convulsed, weakly, and the only sound was the skag eating and Burn's desperate gurgles as he drowned in his own blood and shock set in. Tasha was kneeling at his head, holding his face still with one hand, and as Maya watched – motionless – the girl sliced away his scalp until she held a shock of his dyed red hair in one hand. She shook the excess blood away and tied this to her belt.

"You should have shot him," Maya whispered to Zero.

"This is far more satisfying," the assassin replied, "I'll bring the runner around."

Maya quietly walked towards skag-girl and no one moved to hinder her. The woman was untying the bandage around her upper arm and as it fell away, Maya saw a tattoo there – a bird skull adorned with black feathers. Then Tasha raised her head to regard the assembled bandits.

"As the last surviving Carrion Bird," she said evenly, pitching her voice to carry, "I'm taking control of this clan. Burn never picked out a new name for all of you and I wonder if that is because he hoped that one day, you would all be called Carrion Birds again. Well, if we're to rebuild, I think now's the time. Gather your gear. Go south. Get to work rebuilding the old base – the first thing I want done is those banners up and flying again. I'll return once the digistruct network is back up and running again. Until then, Samuel is my second-in-command."

Then she turned and threw up an arm, gesturing at the Hyperion engineers.

"Cut them down and burn the bodies! Any more engineers show up in our territory, make sure you take them far from here and murder them on the doorstep of one of our rival clans. Let them pay for it instead of us!"

One of the bandits on the wall moved. Maya saw him fall into a sloppy firing stance and then there was the retort of a rifle, sharp and clear, and he fell backwards and out of sight. No one else stirred.

"Figured Snot would try that," Tasha said casually, "Where's his buddy – James? Ah."

She pivoted on her heel, snatching up her discarded shotgun, and slung it low at her waist before she fired. The recoil forced her back a step, but her aim was fair enough. The slugs struck the bandit in question in the chest and shoulder, then the rounds incinerated, and the flames did the rest.

"Anyone else?" she said, speaking loudly to be heard over Jame's dying screams, "Anyone at all? C'mon, you all have pushed me around enough, aren't I not that frightened little girl still? No?"

She paused, walking around the tight ring of bandits and she paused in front of a handful, drawing in close. She barely reached most of their shoulders, yet each one she came near to fell back a step. Perhaps they saw the madness in her eyes. Maya did. Then Tasha returned to the center and glared about her once more.

"That's what I thought," she whispered and everyone strained to hear it, "You know who raised me. I'm my mother's daughter. I'm Lar's heir. I'm the legacy of the Carrion Birds. Now get to work; I gave you your orders, and if they're not obeyed I'll slag your water supply when I get back and let you all die horribly. Get going!"

The bandits moved to comply. Zero was edging the runner through the gates of the outpost now and Tasha walked right past Maya as if the siren was invisible, instead going straight to the assassin. She leaned over the driver's seat for a moment Maya heard her telling Zero he was going to be driving for a little bit now, and to get them to some coordinates she pointed out on the console. Then she was climbing up into the turret. Maya followed.

"And Bunny?" Maya asked as she edged herself in, not quite sitting, not quite standing. Tasha was perched on the edge of the turret, surveying her new bandit clan. Maya wasn't sure how she felt about all of this.

"I'm leaving him behind. Samuel is a smart guy and doesn't have ambition, so I don't have to worry about him usurping me while I'm going. He left Burn well enough alone when he could have been running this place long ago. He knows some of Bunny's commands, the skag will listen to him while I'm gone. He knows the Carrion Birds are his pack."

"And yet he's eating Burn."

"Yes. Because I told him to."

The runner swayed into motion, carefully, and Zero edged the vehicle through the open area of the complex to the gates on the other side. The Dahl Headlands stretched out before them and he eased the runner forwards, gathering speed, and only once the compound was an indistinct figure did Tasha drop to the floor of the turret across from Maya. It was far less cramped with the other woman than it had been with Zero. The siren leaned forwards, pushing back Tasha's hair to regard the face hidden behind. She'd wiped most of the blood off with the back of her hand but Maya could see the swelling in the corner of her mouth and the fresh blood still pooling up in the split that Burn had left with his fist. A bruise was already gathering along the line of her jaw, almost to her ear.

"You're lucky nothing is broken," Maya murmured.

"It hurts," Tasha replied, and this time the siren could hear the weakness in her voice. This was not her nature. Pandora made people violent, but that was the planet's influence, and some people were not born with that sort of nature – they did not have bloodlust in their heart and their bones did not sing with the brutality this world forced upon its inhabitants. And despite everything that she had seen, it was apparent that Tasha's nature was not one that could ever adapt to bloodshed. Nor was it something she could condition herself to. Maya could see this, in the way Tasha reached up to touch the tender flesh of her cheek, as if she still did not believe someone could do this to another person – to her. She saw it in how the woman huddled in on herself, knees tight against her chest, and in the minute shivering that had settled in, like her muscles were vibrating with the impact of Burn's fist still.

Yet, this traumatized girl had still ripped open Burn's chest and fed him to her skag. Had taken control of a bandit camp and not flinched once in doing so, not until she was away and safe.

"You think you can do this?" Maya asked, "Fix the digistruct network and then go back and lead a bandit camp?"

"I have to, don't I?" Tasha replied and some of that weariness Maya had seen earlier bled through in her voice. Dull. Hollow.

And that, Maya supposed, was a strength of an entirely different kind. She'd not make the mistake of thinking Tasha weak again.

* * *

They met up with Mordecai at the first relay tower. The trio had reached it before sundown on the first day after leaving the outpost behind, but Tasha was struggling to understand what Jack had done to the network. They encamped there, Zero spending his time at the top of the relay tower, perched on a small platform used for maintenance, watching their surroundings. Maya practiced her phaselocking on the small ground creatures that seemed too stupid to realize they should just relocate for a while. The three did not speak about what happened back at the outpost, which for Zero was not unusual. Maya felt that she had nothing more to say – this was Tasha's decision and the woman would have to live with it, somehow. Tasha seemed utterly given over to the task at hand, hardly moving from where she'd pulled the wiring free in the relay tower and hooked them up to a handheld unit that now spat out data to her.

Zero saw the approaching runner first and snapped to alertness, tracing its progress with the scope on his rifle. When he dropped the gun back down, Maya knew it was someone friendly, and that someone was most likely Mordecai. She went out to meet him. Tasha appeared oblivious – or wasn't ready for the reunion yet – and Zero was simply... Zero. He remained where he was.

Mordecai sent the runner into a tight sideways slide to expend its momentum and Maya skittered back, not confident he'd actually stop it before it hit her. As it was, it was a close thing, and Maya glared at the sniper as he clambered out of the driver's seat. She could see a few opens bottles of ale rolling around on the floor and wondered if they had been emptied recently or not. The sniper seemed sober enough, but it was often hard to tell with him, as he had a lanky, rolling gait and his goggles covered his eyes. He came to a halt about three feet away from Maya and looked her up and down. She'd found – in the one time she'd had face-to-face contact with him, out in the tundra – that he over-exaggerated his movements when he wanted the other person to know where his eyes were going. Otherwise, he just let people try and guess.

"So," he said, "How's Tasha?"

"Ask her." The siren jerked her head to indicate the woman was back by the tower. Mordecai didn't move.

"I'm asking you first," he said, "Girl ain't stable."

"I gathered. She's done well enough. Ripped the bandit leader at the checkpoint apart and fed him to Bunny, then took control of the surviving bandits."

"Madre de Dios!" Mordecai exploded, throwing his hands up to grab at the sides of his head, "Are you fucking serious!?"

"I am. That... not what you expected to hear?"

"No. Yes. I don't know. Hijo de puta. Roland isn't going to like this."

"But-"

Maya wanted to say that Roland seemed to have no qualms about Lilith leading a bandit gang to keep them in check and that perhaps, Tasha could do the same thing. But Mordecai was pushing past her, heading straight for Tasha. The woman was standing, gently setting aside her equipment, and Maya reluctantly followed. There was going to be yelling, she could tell. She wondered what new curse words she'd learn this time – so far Mordecai had only introduced her to a handful of phrases, but the more upset he got, the more new ones seemed to come out.

"You're showing your tattoo," Mordecai said as the two slowed to a stop, a careful distance away. Tasha was watching him warily, like he was a half-starved skag, and Maya thought that perhaps this might be what broke her – if Mordecai said one thing wrong. She was suddenly afraid.

"Yeah," Tasha replied, "I had to."

"Did you? Really? Maya says you're their leader now."

"Yes!" Tasha cried, desperation in her voice, "I spent a lifetime there – I can't let Jack destroy all that!"

"Why not?" There was savagery in Mordecai's voice and Maya wondered where it came from. He took a step towards her and the woman flinched away, suddenly a small and frightened girl again. "I get it – you couldn't sever ties completely because they were your family. But now they're dead and it's time to mourn and move on. Stop chaining yourself to your past – just let it fucking go!"

"I can't." She turned her back to him.

"Why? Because you're honoring your mother's memory or some bullshit? Your mother was crazy."

"I – I know, but it's not just that – I knew every name in that camp and all the names of the offshoot branch and - "

She stopped cold and Maya saw her shoulders stiffen.

"Mordecai," she said evenly, quietly, "I never told you my mother was in that camp."

There was silence for a moment, a very tense silence, and Maya wished she wasn't here to hear any of this. It... explained a lot. There were layers and layers of trauma in the girl, it seemed, and it was little wonder she was so close to snapping as Mordecai had warned them. Maya wondered at what point her mother had degenerated into insanity, and at what age the girl was when she became part of the bandit camp. These would be questions for Mordecai, later, assuming he didn't drink himself senseless after this blunder.

"I spied on you," the sniper said finally, "Way back when we first met. We four didn't know what to think about you and well, we needed to know how deep the involvement with the bandits ran. There wasn't any trust yet, you see? Then when I saw – I'll be honest, I thought about going back and shooting her many times. I thought that maybe it'd let you just... walk away. Come live in New Haven." He exhaled heavily. "Guess I was wrong."

"I thought about doing the same some nights," Tasha replied quietly, "Just one bullet and it'd be over for both of us."

Maya heard relief in the girl's voice. Mordecai hadn't intended this, Maya figured, but by admitting that he'd just given the woman a way to unburden herself of her own guilt.

"This planet is so fucked up," Mordecai muttered.

"Yeah. I got a start on the digistruct network problem, you want to see what I have so far?"

And that was it. The two walked off towards the relay tower, Mordecai trailing a step behind, curbing his long strides so as not to overtake her. Maya shook her head in confusion.

"Zero," she said over short-range ECHO, "Did you catch that?"

"I did."

"And?"

"People are complicated."

That seemed to be all she was going to get out of him. Nevermind they'd just overheard that Tasha's mother was a psycho for the bandits, that Mordecai had thought of murdering her, and that Tasha had thought of doing the same. Perhaps Zero had just seen enough in his line of work to not be surprised by anything anymore. Maya had seen quite a bit herself, but it was all of a different kind and in these matters, she'd been sheltered.

"I don't how to handle this now," Maya said to Zero.

"Are you asking me?"

She paused, not certain she wanted to answer. Then she braced herself.

"Yes."

"Okay." He hesitated. "Don't worry about it."

"That's it?"

"Yes. It's Mordecai's problem. We're just here to kill anyone that interferes with Tasha's work."

"That's... reassuring."

"I know."

And somehow, even though his voice did not change from the deadpan, slightly mechanical overtone, she knew he was pleased with himself. Maya shook her head in dismay. This planet was fucked up and somehow, Maya found herself inexplicably drawn to it, as was Zero and Mordecai and Roland and all the others. They'd fight for it, die for it, and a little girl would endure an insane mother and be raised as a bandit. And now, that same little girl would take over the clan and then turn that same iron will to refuting Jack's latest transgression on the people of Pandora.

This was going to be an interesting one. Maya was almost glad she was along to watch it unfold.


	5. Raising the Stakes

_Author's Note: I must confess that the parts of Borderlands 2 that I love the most is when Mordecai is drunk-dialing me on the ECHOnet._

* * *

Jack's hot tub was made of compressed lapis lazuli, the stone streaked with lines of gold. It was about three times the size of a standard hot tub as well, and could have been bigger but Jack figured when it came to hot tubs, there might be such a thing as overkill. Instead, he'd opted to have a bar built in at one end, complete with bar stools – also of lapis – half-submerged into the tub so he didn't have to leave the water. This was where he was, watching water condense on his glass of bourbon, staring at the screen that constituted the back wall of the bar.

"Run this by me again," he said and Angel's features flickered. She was looping her feed again, it'd become a habit of hers when she didn't want him to see what her real-time expression was, which seemed to be always the case now.

"I said, the digistruct network is back up for the Dahl Headlands."

"How is this possible?" He was trying to remain calm. It was difficult. He wondered – distantly, as he didn't want to overtly consider the possibility – if Angel had once again gone against him.

"I don't know, I'm not privy to the details of how you brought it down to begin with," Angel replied and there was a sharp undertone of resentment.

"And there's reason for that," Jack replied, carefully shaping his voice to be patient and calm. He loved his daughter, after all, and would ensure she remained the perfect daughter – obedient, attentive. She just had to be reminded of that every now and then.

"Yes." The image closed her eyes, the feed no longer looped. "Of course. I would have to guess that the vault hunters are behind this."

"No. They're not smart enough to bring the network back up."

"Clearly, someone is. Perhaps they have help?"

He considered this. It was... a possibility, as loathe as he was to admit it.

"Alright," he finally said, "Give me a list of everyone on Pandora with the qualifications to counter-hack my network."

There was a flicker and then the screen was filled with personal files. Angel's voice started droning off names and Jack only half-listened.

"Angela Alrith, former Atlas engineer, deceased. Gary Azerth, Hyperion engineer, stationed at Opportunity."

"Narrow it down to only the people possibly helping them."

"Gerald Barrin, former Dahl engineer, currently in Sanctuary. Konrad Du-"

"Wait, did you say Sanctuary?"

There was a flicker as the personnel file was brought up. Two more files fanned out on either side – he had a wife and child, apparently. No, had. Past tense. Mother had died years and years ago, taking the one-year old girl with her. Idiot. Still, the remaining family member certainly did seem to have the knowledge to undo his work on the digistruct network – computer engineer. Wife was mechanical engineer, surely she'd passed along some of that knowledge as well before her death.

"So this is who's helping them," Jack murmured.

"Dad, there's forty-eight other possibilities," Angel replied tersely, "Some of them also residing in Sanctuary."

"Ah, fuck it." He grabbed for the glass of bourbon and drained it, then threw the glass aside. It bounced off the marble floor and shattered. "Whoever it is, doesn't matter much. I'll have him shot and then ID the body after. Or something. Just get some loaders primed for deployment when they reach the next relay tower. Do you have a lock on them right now?"

"No. They're out in the wilds."

"Damn. Fine. Then just bring up an open channel to the entire area."

There was another flicker of the screen and then Angel nodded, indicating that the channel was open.

"Aright, all you screw-ups listen close," he said into the resulting silence, "Those vault hunters – aided by one of those Sanctuary bandits – are vandalizing the relay towers that control the digistruct network. The standing bounty still applies and in addition, I'll throw in a free starship – one of the big ones too, that could house a whole city – if you bring in whoever the hell it is that's helping them. And to the vault hunters themselves – stop fucking around with my network! You assholes have NO idea how hard I worked on it, or rather, how hard I had my employees do it. Because I got tons of people working for me, unlike you, who have – what – a handful of inbred and unwashed illiterates in that floating junk heap you call a city? Anyway, touch another relay tower and I'll kill you. Actually, I'm going to kill you anyway, so whatever. Just leave my towers alone."

There. He gestured at Angel to kill the connection. There was quiet for a moment, then Angel's face filled with surprise.

"There's a return broadcast," she said.

"Trace it!"

"I – am. And it's scrambled, I can't find the source."

The screen flickered over to an image that was – regrettably – familiar. The sniper from the original four, looking a bit scruffier than Jack remembered. Good 'ol Mordecai, only useful for sniping when he wasn't falling-down-drunk or doting on his filthy bird. At least he was wearing a bandanna now instead of that ridiculous hood, although it was still questionable if he'd ever bothered to wash his rat-tail hair a single day in his entire life.

"Jaaaack," Mordecai drawled, "Fuck you. Also, Bloodwing here has something to say."

The image swapped over to the nearly featherless head and beak of his precious bird. The creature eyed him narrowly for a moment, then cried shrilly into the ECHO unit. Jack winced at the vulgar noise. Then it switched back to Mordecai.

"That was bird for 'fuck you'. Now go do us a favor and fall on a live grenade."

The ECHO switched off. Jack made to seize his glass and hurl it across the room, only to realize that he already had. His fist clenched futility on open air instead.

"Angel," he said, strained with anger, "Please tell me you finished that trace."

"No, like I said, it was scrambled."

"I'm going to kill that damn bird. Pop its ugly little head off."

Actually, that wasn't such a bad idea. Jack shrugged off the bar stool, submersing himself up to the shoulders in the hot water. He needed to relax, get rid of some tension. Dealing with those damnable vault hunters always gave him such a headache. Behind him, Angel remained on the screen a moment more, her projection emotionless, then as Jack's back turned to her, her expression twisted into a look of utter disgust, and the screen went blank.

* * *

There was a maniacal laugh from directly above Maya's head and the platform at the top of the relay tower swayed alarmingly. A moment later, Mordecai's torso was hanging down, balanced precariously on his stomach to look out underneath where Tasha and Maya were working on the digistruct network. The woman had decided the best way to circumvent Jack's lock on the network was to do the same as she had done with electricity in some places, and take it off the main network entirely. It required a splitting of the signal, some splicing into existing systems, and in one area restarting a generator that had lain idle for years. Tasha did not believe it would last for too long and it had the unavoidable side-effect of making the sub-network connected only to itself, which mean the digistruct network would work, but only on Pandora and only between stations connected to it. Maya wasn't sure how they were going to get Sanctuary's Fast Travel hooked up to it while they were trapped planet-side. Tasha hoped to find a better solution, but in the meantime, this would have to do.

"Did you see that?" Mordecai asked of the two women, "Please tell me you saw that."

"I'm sure it was a magnificent shot," Tasha replied absently, "Thank you for keeping those bandits from returning to their camp while I work."

"The least you can do is actively appreciate how good I am at this."

"I'm working, Mordecai."

The sniper turned his head to regard Maya, frowning. It was disconcerting to look up at him like that so Maya stared over Tasha's shoulder instead, as if she understood what the tangle of wires was.

"I'm rooting for Zero," the siren said stubbornly, "Yay Zero. Go Zero."

"You don't sound too enthusiastic about that."

"Enthusiasm is not allowed on team Zero," she replied, as deadpan as she could.

There was a crack and Mordecai vanished back onto the platform to confirm Zero's shot. The two were taking turns at sniping the bandits they'd chased away from the relay tower earlier, encouraging them to keep their distance until Tasha was done. Encouragement via head-shots, with points awarded for style by some convoluted system that Maya suspected was being arbitrated by Bloodwing. She knew that Mordecai had been drinking for the past hour or so, which explained his enthusiasm for the madcap game, but she suspected that Zero was merely ignoring the entire affair and if his shots happened to line up between Mordecai's, then so be it.

"He's always happiest when he sniping," Tasha muttered, "Gets all moody when he hasn't shot anyone in a while."

"How did you two meet, anyway?"

"I fixed his prized rifle. I don't think he uses it anymore, just keeps it as a trophy. Helped kill the Destroyer with it."

"And you two just... kept in touch?"

Tasha hesitated, her wire-strippers poised in mid-air in one hand. She looked contemplative for a moment.

"Well, he called on me for help every now and then. Since I knew the bandits, I could pass along intel he needed. Sometimes I'd have him come in and clear out a camp that was giving me hell and he'd occasionally bring along one or two or all of the others as well. But mostly it was just Mordecai, sniping them all for me."

"You just gave him information on the bandits you relied upon to survive?" Maya found this hard to believe.

"Yeah. So they could take out strategic camps. It probably wasn't the smartest thing and if anyone ever finds out, I'm dead."

"Wow. I, uh, just wow, Tasha. Then... you two..?" Maya inquired. Tasha adamantly shook her head.

"No. Just – no. Absolutely not."

"Then what?"

The woman looked uneasy and cast a glance up at the platform before dropping her gaze again, staring blankly at the wire strippers in her lap. There was an exposed sort of look to her and Maya could read the emotions easily enough off Tasha's thin face. Desperation, a hint of it, and devotion – but not as Maya had originally assumed. A vulnerable sort of need.

"Oh," Maya whispered, "I see. Really? Mordecai?"

"I was raised by bandits," Tasha replied, her voice also low, "Lars and the rest treated me like some sort of a joke. My own father doesn't even recognize me and is incapable of recognizing me, not even when Dr. Zed shoved the results of a paternity test in his face. And then Mordecai came along and he was, well, not exactly _nice _to me, but he actually gave a damn about whether I lived or died. So yeah. Mordecai."

"Wow. Those are some daddy issues."

"I know," Tasha replied miserably. She shook herself and turned her attention back to the wires.

"If it's any consolation, I was raised by a cult."

Tasha giggled and then checked herself short. Maya was about to say more, but there was a clatter from the platform above them.

"Ladies," Mordecai called from above, his voice a lazy drawl, "We got incoming, and not of the bandit variety."

The ground trembled in answer to Mordecai's words. There was a plume of dust, perhaps twenty yards out, and Maya could see something moving in that plume. Then another burst of light streaked from the sky with an ominous whistle, and the ground trembled again.

"Shit," Maya muttered, "Keep your head down, Tasha. You're not going to do much good against loaders."

"I've not even seen one yet," she replied, curious.

"That's a good thing!"

The siren didn't have time to talk any longer. The boys would be able to wreck some havoc sniping between the two of them, but they'd need someone running point to ensure they didn't have all the fire concentrated on them. That would interrupt their sniping and while Maya had already heard what happened when Zero got pinned – mostly he just made a few terse remarks – she had no desire to antagonize Mordecai. His foreign swearing was amusing, but not when she was being shot at. Not when she didn't have time to appreciate it.

There were eight loaders in all, scattered in a rough wedge before the relay tower. At least they were all in one direction, that was something to be thankful for. Maya drew her pistol and ran for the first – and practically the only – cover available, a low cluster of debris. She slid in behind this, landing on both her knees, and poked up above the rocks to fire at the nearest loader. She emptied her clip before it returned fire and she was forced to duck back under as bullets scattered above her head. Her heart was pounding, her breath was coming fast, but her hands were steady as she ejected the clip and snatched a new one from her belt, slamming it home in easy, practiced motions. She could see clouds of dust and shards of rock splintering at the impact of the bullets. Then an explosion punctured the air and Maya rose from cover again, locating the next target and firing. They were moving steadily up towards her position, converging as they went, swaying side to side as their pistons drove them forwards.

"Snipe a bit faster, if you will," she said tersely into the ECHO, both hands steadying her pistol as she fired. The bullets were focused around the shoulder joint and on about the third shot the entire arm sagged and then fell to the ground with a heavy thump.

"You can't rush sniping," Mordecai replied, "Just sit tight and keep playing bait, we'll drop 'em all soon enough."

"I am not bait."

"I like working with you, Maya. Lilith would be cursing at me by now."

Her shield flashed and Maya ducked lower to the ground. The closest loader had gotten the height advantage and she only had a few minutes left before her cover was rendered useless.

"I'm going to start cursing here in a minute."

Another explosion, muted this time, and the sound of metal impacting the ground. The bullets stalled for a moment as the loaders recalculated and Maya broke from cover. She strafed sideways, keeping herself light on her toes to keep from tripping on anything, and exhaled, bringing her focus to bear. It was like honing a single moment of clarity out of the chaos, a delicate thing, like catching a soap bubble in one hand. There was nothing delicate about the power she unleashed – but the formation – that was. Then a shock ran through her, like cold water in her veins, and she gestured. A sphere of purple energy enveloped the closest loader and trapped the machine there, suspended by her will. She laughed, low in her throat, and when she raised her gun up there was a sharpness to her movements, her muscles exulting in their own strength. The discharge of the bullets seemed louder to her and it was as if she could feel the impact as they slammed into the next loader from where she stood. Her first couple shots ripped holes in the armor. When the sniper's bullet hit, it tore through the weakened plate and into the interior. Electricity rippled through the machine and it jolted to a stop, then fell to the ground in stages, finally collapsing forwards into the dirt.

"That was cheating," Mordecai said through the ECHO.

"I am supporting my teammate," Zero replied.

"Dammit, Maya, can you weaken up the armor on that one in the very rear?"

"Nope, still rooting for team Zero," she replied.

There were only three left now. Mordecai seemed determined to take the hardest shot himself and Zero seemed content to let him, instead focusing his fire on the one closest to Maya. The siren, for her part, could no longer ignore the warning flash in the corner of her HUD or the weakening of her phaselock. She ran, at a diagonal, away from both the relay tower and the loaders. Then, once the bullets redirected towards the two snipers, she spun as she felt her phaselock drop. Her pistol centered on the loader and she pulled the trigger. The shots hit around the center and after a couple hits the machine collapsed into two sections. She could see it still trying to drag itself forwards until a burst of glass and metal signaled a bullet had pierced through its control core and stilled it for good. The resulting silence was almost unnatural and Maya stood there, listening to her own breathing and feeling the start of an adrenaline crash working its way through her head.

She always hated that part. She seemed to adrenaline crash far faster than anyone else on her team and it had at first been a struggle to control the resulting flood of emotions. Now, it was expected, but didn't make it any less unpleasant. She holstered her gun and forced herself to walk calmly back to the relay tower, as if nothing was wrong. She found Tasha pushing herself up out of a hollow just behind the tower where she had taken cover once the shooting started. The two women looked at each other for a moment and Maya thought that there was some understanding there, that Tasha suffered from the same sensations.

The two snipers dropped down from above, Bloodwing fluttering after to land on Mordecai's shoulder. Mordecai looked grim.

"Pack it up, Tasha."

"I'm not done yet!"

"Jack has our position, we're done here."

He pulled at the woman's arm and she twisted to snarl at him. It was a startlingly feral gesture and there was malice in it – this was not mock or play. Yet Mordecai did not pull away, he merely dropped her arm and even stepped in closer to loom over her. She shivered and bent to the wires, detaching her equipment. Maya thought about what skag-girl had said – Mordecai wasn't exactly nice to her. But he was there and he protected her.

"When loaders are deployed," Zero elaborated, "there's only two ways to deal with it. Either move position or outlast Jack's current resources. The latter is difficult and we do not have the full team here, so we need to move."

"Fine." Tasha slammed the panel to the access box shut. "But we're going to have to revise our strategy now, if we're getting loaders dropped on us at each relay tower."

The four made for the runners at a fast jog. Tasha had forfeited the driver's seat of hers to Mordecai, as she preferred to stay in the turret and work more on ways to bring the digistruct network back up. Maya had taken over Mordecai's runner in return and Zero seemed content to take the turret. The siren swung herself in and fastened the harness, starting the engine and giving Zero a moment to situate himself. Then she eased it out, following Mordecai away from the relay tower. Behind them, there were the streaks and clouds of dust from more loaders landing.

"So what now?" Maya asked into the ECHO as they drove away. Mordecai was heavy on the acceleration, like always. The siren wondered how Tasha got anything done being thrown around by the sniper's heavy-handed driving.

"We're going to need some help with this, I think," Tasha replied, "I'm not a programmer, but I think if we could find someone that was they'd be able to rig up a way to automatically hack into the units and drop all non-Hyperion traffic onto my sub-network. And maybe even secure my sub-network, that'd be a nice perk."

"So where we gonna find a programmer?"

"Sanctuary," Mordecai growled, "Which we can't get to."

"I have an idea," Zero said. That was surprising. It wasn't that he never had any ideas, it was just that he so rarely volunteered them. The short-range ECHO channel fell silent at this unexpected development.

"Who uses the digistruct network more than anyone on Pandora? And has the resources to supply Tasha with everything she needs?"

There was a moment of silence as the rest of the team puzzled on this.

"Tediore," Maya said suddenly, "They can't send out new guns."

"Hot damn," Mordecai whistled, "That is clever. Alright, hang on kids, I know just where the closest off-world communication hub is. Let's go make a call."

And Mordecai threw his runner into a ninety-degree turn, forcing Maya to do the same to avoid ramming him by accident. When her runner finished spinning out and the dust cleared enough, Mordecai was already speeding off towards a far-away line of mountains. Maya gunned the engine to follow.


	6. Long Distance

_Author's Note: So I finally caved and wrote a haiku._

* * *

It was sundown when the four arrived at the station. It has been abandoned, Mordecai explained, a long while ago and bandits had since claimed it. That, coupled with the lack of demand for off-world transmissions in this area of Pandora, ensured that the station remained in bandit hands. Tasha elaborated further, helpfully explaining that she'd never been on good terms with these bandits – too close to the Carrion Birds territory – and would have no qualms about killing them all.

"Good," Maya grunted, hauling herself out of the runner once it had come to a stop, "Cause that's what I intend to do."

The four fanned out, approaching the camp and staying low as they did. The two snipers would give the two women cover for their assault. Once the bandits outside had been scattered, they'd clear out the interior and Zero would take the rooftop to ensure the bandits remained away. Mordecai did not seem pleased to be left out of the sniping, but Tasha insisted he be there to help talk to Tediore. Maya thought the young woman seemed a bit intimidated by the prospect, more so than the imminent fighting. Maya wanted to ask Mordecai if this was such a good idea, sending Tasha in as well, but the sniper was too far away from her and any ECHO communication would be shared with Tasha and Zero as well. As it was, Mordecai seemed inclined to speak up about this on his own.

"This seem familiar, skag-girl?" he asked.

"It does. Except I don't have Bunny."

"You going to freeze up again?"

Hesitation.

"If I do, you'll be watching out for me."

"That's not an answer." Mordecai's tone turned harsh.

"I-I'll try. I'll get in fast. That'll help."

"Good."

Mordecai and Zero both dropped out of the formation and the two continued on alone. She was aware of the snipers behind them, settling themselves into position with their rifles. It was comforting to know that she had two of them at her back. Before, with just Zero, it was enough to have him alone. He was good with a pistol, good with a sword, but he was magnificent with a sniper rifle. There was a reliance there, knowing that someone would always be watching her back. It had not been said, but both knew that Zero had saved her life on occasion. And Maya, in turn, supposed she'd done the same by keeping their enemies too busy to hunt out the sniper and kill him.

The bandits had only halfheartedly put up a wall around the outpost. They were relying on the building itself to shelter them, she thought. Then Tasha was slipping along the wall towards where it grew close to the building and Maya realized she intended to go over rather than through the front gate. The siren shrugged. It was a stylistic preference. She personally preferred to eschew the subtlety, but Tasha wasn't a siren and according to Mordecai, wasn't good with any kind of gun. She still carried Lar's incendiary shotgun and Maya hoped she'd have the presence of mind to at least try using it. Otherwise, things were going to get messy again, which would be a shame. The bruises on Tasha's face were still fresh.

Skag-girl clambered over the fence, finding hand-holds in the dark that Maya didn't know existed. She thought that perhaps Tasha had experience doing this before. It took a bit more effort for Maya to follow, then both were over and crouching on the interior of the camp.

"What's wrong with the front gate?" Mordecai asked over ECHO.

"Not my choice," Maya hissed back in an undertone.

"Give me a minute," Tasha replied, also keeping her voice low, "This is going to be a target-rich environment for both of you in a moment. Call it an early birthday present, Mordecai."

"You don't even know when my birthday is."

"It's in three months. You'll be turning 44. Lilith told me a while back."

"Anything else she tell you?" It was a dangerous question, even Maya could hear this in the terseness of Mordecai's tone. Tasha made no reply, which was probably wise.

She was against the wall of the building itself now, prying at one of the panels. It seemed she knew exactly what she was looking for. Maya hovered nearby, pistol in hand, standing guard. Tasha was quiet in her movements as she undid the bolts and eased the panel free. Apparently this was not the first time she'd worked on something in secret. Maya remembered her threat to slag the water supply if the Carrion Birds disobeyed her – she wondered if this was something the woman had done before. At their first meeting, Maya wouldn't have thought her capable of it, but now? There was a ruthless streak to the girl and Maya thought that it frightened Tasha, and so she only brought it out when strictly necessary.

The siren couldn't blame her. There had been a brutality in that fight with Burn that could be a predecessor for more horrible things.

Tasha was pulling wires free and wrapping the exposed ends together. There was a hum from around the area and Maya turned in a circle, sensing that something ominous was about to happen. There was a flicker from above, like gunfire, then light flooded the compound. The world seemed to pause with shocked silence, then shouts of confusion started wafting up from the complex, followed quickly by the sharp retort of a rifle. Mordecai and Zero were opening fire.

"I disabled their flood lights a while back," Tasha said smugly, "Back when I had to sneak in here to do some work on the electrical lines that run underneath the building. It was easier in darkness."

"So you just turned them back on."

"Yep. They're all blinded now and easy targets for our snipers."

"And we're easy targets for them."

Tasha frowned and climbed to her feet. She gestured for Maya to follow and the siren did, staying close to the side of the building. The bandits seemed preoccupied with figuring out where the sniper fire was coming from and the two women easily made their way to a side-door. Tasha tried it, found it locked, and then pulled a grenade. Maya didn't need explanation. The siren backed off and after a moment Tasha came running and dove to the ground next to her as the explosion roared over their heads, showering them with dirt. Maya's shield flashed, briefly, as fire rolled out in a wave before dissipating. Then she was on her feet, running for the new entrance to the building, Tasha close behind.

The interior was relatively deserted. She ran into three bandits that were moving to investigate the explosion and she made quick work of them, ducking out around the corner each time there was a lull in firing as someone reloaded until they were all dropped. Tasha remained a pace behind and did not attempt to help, for which the siren was grateful. She recognized her limitations, at least. They continued on, sweeping the halls, and Tasha was at least competent in how this worked in theory. She kept her shotgun down by her hip and lead with that each time she turned to face a new hallway branching off the main one. In practice, however, the woman could use some work.

Maya was a pace ahead when she heard the gunshots. She turned in time to see Tasha spin to face the bandits that had come up behind them. She fired and missed. The recoil knocked Tasha off her feet and the girl skittered to all fours, forgetting her gun in the process. Maya could see her shield flashing with each bullet impact and the siren estimated she had only seconds left. She raised her pistol to take aim on the first bandit, but Tasha was already moving for the second.

"Shit," Maya hissed and fired anyway, landing three shells into the bandit's chest. He dropped and Tasha leapt over his falling body and plowed straight into the second.

The two went down in a tumble of limbs. Her momentum carried her past him and she skidded on the metal floor, fighting for traction to reverse her run, and then she threw herself back on top of the bandit, knife in hand. Maya was running closer now, hoping to get a clear shot, or at least get close enough to throw a punch or two if skag-girl couldn't handle it. The woman was grabbing at the bandit's belt and her fingers closed around a shield, which she ripped free and threw it down the hallway. Then the bandit was grabbing at her, and his hand closed on one of Tasha's arms, the one with the knife. So Tasha drew her second blade. She stabbed this sideways, into the muscle of the bandit's arm, and he surged up, trying to throw the woman off. Tasha remained stuck to him, wrapping her legs around his waist like she had done with Burn, and the two simply toppled over again, this time the bandit on top of the dog-pile, landing on his knees. He was cursing, grabbing for the woman, trying to get a hold, then his curses dissolved into one long, continuous scream. He convulsed, his spine arching back, and there was a flailing from Tasha and one boot connected with his face. The bandit fell backwards with a crunch of bone and Tasha bounced up to her knees, diving forwards, and knocked him down with one hand slamming his head against the ground. Then she raised her knife. Brought it down. The bandit shuddered. She wrenched it free and brought it down again. Maya had slowed to a stop when she realized that Tasha would be able to hold her own, but now she started moving again, a cold horror mounting in her chest. Tasha slammed the knife down again and the bandit was no longer moving. There was blood streaked across her arm up to the elbow and none of it was her own. Maya came up across from her, not daring to grab her from behind, and snatched at the woman's wrist, trapping it with her own hand. The bandit lay between them, his chest torn open, a ragged mess of splintered bone and shredded muscle. Tasha was panting, her breath coming in sharp gasps that almost sounded like hiccups.

"You're done," Maya said firmly, "He's dead."

There was a moment of silence and Tasha shuddered and looked away. She returned the knives to their sheaths at her waist. Her hands were shaking.

"Right," she said, "Yeah. Let's keep moving."

There were only a few more pockets of bandits to clear out. For each of these, Tasha remained a bit behind, and let Maya do what Maya did best. The siren found it easier this way, for her own actions were predicable. She could phase-lock, she could shoot, and in one instance she had a psycho close in with her, brandishing a hatchet. She drew up her power then and decked him across the face – her knuckles connecting with a jaw worn down to only flesh and bone. He reeled back, dropping the weapon from numb fingers, and she shot him twice in the gut. Tasha paused as she went past the body, staring down at it with a lost expression on her face.

"I think we're clear," Mordecai said over ECHO, "The bandits have broke and run. I imagine they're going to regroup, so let's make this fast. Zero is heading for the rooftop to keep a watch out. The building clear?"

"Should be. We just made the control room," Maya replied, "Tasha is getting the console up and running."

"I'll be there in a moment."

Maya waited. It didn't take long for Mordecai to arrive and the sniper perched near the door, leaning on the frame and watching Tasha work in silence from the opposite end of the room. After a bit Maya ECHOed out to Zero to confirm he was in position. There was a moment of quiet. Maya sighed and rubbed at her forehead. This again. And sure enough, the pause was to give Zero time to think and he returned with something vaguely poetic about killing from the high ground.

"You and your damn haikus," the siren muttered, "A 'yes' would have sufficed."

Tasha hesitated in her work.

"I, uh, what?" she said, "I'm confused."

"It's called a haiku," Zero replied, emotionless as always, "I compose them. Five syllables, seven syllables, five syllables."

"What's a syllable?"

There was a long and significant pause.

"You can reprogram the digistruct network," Zero said evenly, "but you don't know what a syllable is."

"I grew up around bandits. They didn't teach me stuff like that."

"One syllable: hi.

Hello is two syllables.

That was a haiku."

Tasha's lips moved absently as she repeated Zero's words. Then her face cleared with comprehension.

"So, wait," she said, "that entire thing you just said is a haiku and you just made it up on the spot?"

"Yes."

"I still don't get it. What's the point?"

Zero fell silent, clearly offended by Tasha's ignorance. Mordecai seemed to take interest at this point.

"Tasha," he called over, "They did teach you to read, right?"

Tasha hunched over her work and made no response. That was answer enough.

"You're seriously illiterate," Mordecai said, his voice flat with disbelief, "Fuck. I had no idea."

"Then how do you program anything?" Maya asked, bewildered.

"I read symbols," Tasha mumbled, "I know what they mean, but it's code, so it's not language, at least – not like you read it. That's why – why I wanted Mordecai here. So he can connect to Tediore for us."

Her voice was trembling. It was funny, that this woman could take over a bandit gang, rewire just about anything, kill a man with nothing but a knife, and yet she was terrified to admit her ignorance to the two vault hunters here. Maya shook her head in disbelief.

"Shit," Mordecai drawled, "If I drink enough I forget how to read and I can't tell you what teal is even if you shoved it in my face when I'm sober. It's not a big deal."

Maya exchanged a look with the sniper. He gave her a miniscule shrug and shook his head 'no'. Maya understood his meaning well enough. The matter was now dropped and would not come up again. If anything was to be done about it, it would be for Mordecai to handle – later. Perhaps never. Then the console was lighting up and Tasha was standing and backing away. There was a rumble of servos off somewhere in the building as the satellite aligned itself.

"We're in business," Mordecai grinned, "Alright, back up ladies. I got a call to make."

And he stepped up to the console and his hands fluttered over the keys, searching for an open connection to the Tediore corporation.


	7. Cold Blooded Murder

_Author's Note: I actually have more written, but I kind of prefer shorter chapters when it comes to reading stuff online. I'm assuming other people feel the same. (and it means faster updates)_

* * *

As it turned out, Tediore was quite easy to contact. Finding the right person to speak to wasn't terribly difficult either. Mordecai simply found himself on a generic 'comments' channel and once he threw in a few keywords like 'digistruct' and 'information' the computer quickly flagged his communication and flipped it over to a live person. The screen flickered from the Tediore logo to an actual person, dressed in a casual jacket, but one that was ironed to perfection. His hair was similarly perfectly arranged, and Maya had to wonder if that was the corporate image or if he was just borderline obsessive. She suspected the latter.

"Hello, so good of you to contact Tediore with a potential lead on the digistruct network malfunctions," he said with ease that seemed practiced, "Let me start with reminding you that the bounty for information is not paid until we confirm that your intelligence is actually useful."

"Bounty?" Tasha asked. Mordecai made a sharp gesture with one hand behind his back, indicating that Tasha needed to shut up.

"So, uh," Mordecai said, "I'm guessing these problems aren't just on Pandora?"

The man grimaced.

"Pandora. I see. You don't get news from off-world, do you?"

"Not since Hyperion moved in."

"Well, there's been intermittent problems on a number of worlds, nothing too serious, but enough of a concern that Tediore is being proactive on investigating the problem. Hence, the bounty. What is the situation on Pandora? We have trouble getting news from the planet – thanks to Hyperion."

"Total network shutdown. We can't do shit with it. Skag-girl here has been able to bring it back up, but we're getting loaders dropped on our heads now when we approach the relay towers."

The man's gaze followed the jerk of Mordecai's head and eyed Tasha suspiciously.

"...charming name," he finally said.

"It's a nickname," Tasha replied, "I've been dropping all the digistruct traffic on a sub-network and that seems to be working. I'm certain Jack is behind all this, and while I do have data dumps from the affected stations, I don't have anything substantial-"

"Just send us everything you do have," the man interrupted, "Like I said, we'll take a look before determining if it's useful."

"And how do we know you'll pay out the bounty?" Mordecai accused. The man narrowed his eyes at the sniper.

"You don't," he said bluntly, "But it seems to me the bounty is the least of your concerns right now. What do you need more – money, or a functional digistruct network?"

There was silence from the three assembled Pandorans. The man smiled coldly.

"I thought as much. Upload what you have, this channel was secured the moment the computer transferred you to me. We'll get back to you, could be a while, but it'll be within a day at the most. If we can find a way to bring Pandora's digistruct network back up, well then, rest assured we'll do so. We make too much money off that planet not to."

"A day?" Mordecai snapped, apparently not really focusing on the rest of what the man had said, "That's too long, we don't _have _a day, there's a fuck-ton of bandits out there wanting this outpost back."

"Easy," Tasha interjected, grabbing at Mordecai's arm to stall his tirade, "It's not a problem. I know this bandit gang, right? So we'll just head out there and murder their leader and the resulting in-fighting should give us plenty of time to wait for their response. Like you said, there's a lot of bandits, and I know they don't have any clear candidates lined up to take over if their boss dies."

"This is the one thing I actually like about Pandorans," the man from Tediore sighed happily, "Every problem solved with the judicious application of bullets. Now start the upload."

Tasha skirted forwards and plugged her unit into the console. Then she stepped back and let Mordecai do the rest. Maya noticed that before, working directly with the relay towers, she hadn't had any problems interacting with the machines, but as soon as they switched over to something more complicated – with an interface to it – she was helpless. It made sense. If the girl could read computer language but not anything else, of course something meant to interact with humans would be beyond her. She looked small and miserable next to Mordecai, waiting for him to complete the transfer for her.

"Got it all," the man from Tediore pronounced, "Keep an eye on this channel, we'll be in touch. Good luck with the cold-blooded murder."

The screen went blank as the connection terminated. Mordecai blew out a breath.

"Right then," he muttered, "What a dick. We better get that damn bounty."

"We didn't even know about it until just now," Tasha chided.

"So? I still want it. C'mon, let's go kill someone."

Maya trailed behind the two. She opened up the short-range ECHO to apprise Zero of the situation.

"Do you want this to be an anonymous death?" Zero asked. Maya considered.

"No," Tasha replied, also listening in on the channel, "It won't matter who kills him to the bandits, only that he's dead. And I want a hand in this."

The woman looked grim. She pulled out the strip of cloth she'd used before to hide her tattoo and wrapped it back in place, pausing a moment to knot it tight with one hand and her teeth. Maya understood. If this became an affair between gangs, she'd be starting a war between her Carrion Birds and this clan. This way, it'd remain personal.

"I'll remain on the roof then and protect the building," Zero replied, "I will keep you in my sights, however."

"Don't shoot until we do," Maya told him.

The bandits in the surrounding camp appeared to have gathered into some semblance of order. The flood-lights were still on and the gates leading out of the camp were barred. The bandits clustered into tight packs, finding cover wherever they could, and there was an open area down the hill from the building Zero currently guarded. Tasha made for this, seemingly unconcerned about being fired upon. When the closest knot of bandits did open fire, she reacted by – finally – swinging the shotgun around to bear and firing. The blast took one of the bandits in the hip and he went down screaming. Maya and Mordecai were quick to follow suite, only their shots were far more precise with Maya hitting the men in the chest and Mordecai going for the head – of course. The sniper's aim remained flawless.

"Gary!" Tasha called down into the camp, "Show yourself, you simpering coward!"

She pitched her voice to be heard. Maya leaned in closer to the woman.

"What kind of bandit name is Gary?" she asked.

"He goes by a nickname and will slit the throat of anyone who uses his real name. He thinks it's a sissy name."

"You're trying to piss him off."

"Damn straight I am."

There was a stir in the camp below. The three paused on the path leading down and waited. They weren't being fired upon, which seemed reassuring. Then a figure emerged from the shadows between the ramshackle structures. Maya gave a low whistle.

This bandit clearly had gotten to be the leader of the gang by cracking heads together. He was probably Mordecai's height with Axton's build and he could probably arm-wrestle Salvador to a stand-still. The goliath lumbered out into the open, his cronies flanking him warily in the shadows – the light glancing off their goggles like insect eyes – and spat into the dirt as he eyed the three. Tasha stood between Maya and Mordecai, slung into a low stance and balanced on the front of her feet. Her hands dropped loose by her waist, poised to draw the knives. Not the gun. The knives. Maya blew out a breath. The girl was hopeless.

"Well, if it ain't skag-girl," the bandit rumbled, "Guess those rumors of you being in with the vault hunters be more than just rumors."

"As I told you before," Tasha replied tightly, "I work with anyone so long as they follow my terms and it accomplishes my goal. We're getting the digistruct network pieced back together and we needed your outpost."

Her voice dropped lower.

"We shot your men because you tried to kill me before."

The bandit's eyes narrowed. "Should have snapped your neck when I had the chance," he rumbled, "But at least this way, I get to kill your friends now. You're still an ugly bitch, but I suppose I can spare you pity-fuck before I cut your heart out."

There was a click as Mordecai drew his revolver and readied the action. It was an instinctual gesture, so quick it was almost like the gun simply appeared in his hand. Otherwise, he did not move. Tasha had gone pale at the bandit's words.

"You shouldn't have said that," Mordecai said, his voice low but still loud enough to carry, "Now it's personal and we ain't gonna make it quick no more."

There was a rush of wings as Bloodwing lifted off Mordecai's shoulder and took to the air. The bird would circle above until her master called her to strike.

"Kill them!" Gary yelled at his men, "But leave Tasha mostly alive!"

The bandits opened fire. The three broke for cover, Maya diving behind one of the buildings and bullets slammed into the sheet metal like rain after her. Tasha and Mordecai were pinned opposite her on the path, ducked low behind a concrete barrier. Mordecai was readying his rifle and then he popped up above, disregarding the bullets that ate away at his shield as he lined up his shot. He got three bullets off before he was forced back under cover to let his shield replenish. Maya ducked into the open then, emptying her pistol clip downhill at the bandits before she too had to retreat to cover and allow Mordecai to take another shot or two. Tasha seemed stuck where she was, a knife in her hand, waiting.

Gary was making his way up the path towards them, backed by a shattering hail of gunfire. Maya glanced across the distance at the other two and when Mordecai ducked back down he turned his head to return the gaze, his eyes hidden behind the goggles.

"He's got two cronies coming up behind him," Maya called over, "I can phase-lock one. Can you take out the other?"

"Of course. You got a gun good for suppressive fire?"

"No Mordecai, I just carry an assault rifle around on my back for the hell of it."

"Well, I've never seen you use it, so I thought it was for decoration, kind of like Tasha's shotgun."

"I used it! Just now!" Tasha protested.

"Whatever. Maya, keep the bandits downhill busy. I'll take out Gary. Tasha, just stay out of eye-shot. You'll just get in the way of my shots if you close in."

She did not look happy at this. The sniper twisted, throwing his rifle back over his shoulder and clicking it back on to its carry harness. Then he drew his revolver again and reached back to loosen his sword in its sheath. Tasha was trembling and every muscle on her thin frame seemed drawn taunt.

"On three," Mordecai ordered, "One, two – three!"

They burst from cover. Maya gestured, feeling the power ripple through her and then outwards, and one of the bandits was suspended within her will and she laughed before dropping her hand to the assault rifle. She braced and fired, sweeping the muzzle back and forth and sending the bandits diving for cover as the bullets traced a line across their formation. She reigned it back, not wanting to run out of ammo too quickly. The bandits would be able to fire upon Mordecai and Tasha if she had to reload.

The sniper, for his part, had dropped the second bandit and for good measure, taken out the one trapped in phase-lock as well. Maya was mildly irritated by this. Should have used it against Gary. The bandit leader was focused on Mordecai now and the sniper was forced to take cover under a hail of bullets from the man's SMG. Maya hissed – he wasn't paying attention to her, but there were too many bandits downhill for her to change targets. She advanced, moving fast, and sent another three-shot burst down into their ranks to ensure they remained in hiding. Behind her, Gary was screaming insults at Mordecai, who had bolted from cover long enough to fire a few shots off. The sniper's accuracy made them devastating and there was the sound of a shield shattering. What Maya accomplished with a full clip, Mordecai accomplished with only two bullets. She couldn't help but hate him for it, just a little bit. Then she heard a scream and she whipped around, temporarily forgetting about the bandits downhill.

Gary wasn't one for guns, apparently. Mordecai's abandonment of cover had broken the bandit's shield, but the man was fast and rushed at the sniper. Mordecai had his blade out, but the bandit's hand had closed over Mordecai's wrist and as Tasha watched his fingers convulsed and Mordecai's hand trembled at the pressure and then his sword fell from his fingers and landed in the ground. Then the bandit punched Mordecai in the stomach and the sniper doubled over with an anguished cry. Gary hit him again, and then a third time, all in the same spot, and Mordecai fell to his knees, hardly able to breath, his dominant hand still pinioned in Gary's clutch, his arm twisted at a painful angle.

Maya swore and turned to fire down on the bandits again, which had emerged and were trying a concentrated rush on her position. She downed five more before they ducked back into cover, this time further up the hill than before. Bloodwing dove in amongst them, wings flaring as she ripped at one of the bandits with her talons before breaking off and taking back to the skies. They continued to fire, alternating to ensure no one bandit remained out in the open for too long, and Maya swore and ducked back behind the side of a building. This was not going well. She pulled a grenade from her belt and lobbed it downhill. That would buy her some breathing time.

Tasha had emerged from cover and rushed Gary. She hit him at the shoulder and he released Mordecai to counter, catching the brunt of her weight and then he flung his arm out, throwing her back. She slammed against a sheet metal wall and the thing crumpled under the impact, Tasha vanishing from sight into the interior of the structure. She'd hit around the shoulders and the back of the head. There was a good chance the impact had left her unconscious.

"Zero," Maya said into ECHO, "Now would be a great time for some covering fire."

"I have been. It's a very long shot though. Who needs to die the most?"

"Keep the bandit hordes pinned. Doesn't need to be accurate, just consistent."

"Understood."

Mordecai was reaching for his fallen sword, one arm pressed tight to his chest and he was coughing uncontrollably. Gary stepped forwards and kicked the sniper, higher on the chest this time, and the man convulsed and dropped into the dirt, his fingers clawing at the ground. Maya stepped from cover, trusting that Zero would do as she asked. Behind her, she heard the bandits cry out in elation, then it turned to cries of surprise as bullets slammed in among their position. There was a shrill cry and Bloodwing once again joined the attack. Maya's shield flashed, but it wasn't as concentrated fire as before. She had a few minutes, but only a few.

Her power surged free. The phase-lock snapped into place around Gary, imprisoning him where he was, and the force of it threw Mordecai backwards and out of range. He hit the ground and rolled, coming up on his belly. He was struggling to his knees and drawing a spare pistol. Maya was ahead of him, however, dropping her assault rifle to let it hang from the shoulder strap and unslinging her own pistol. The two fired almost simultaneously. Maya's bullets punched through his chest, Mordecai's through the abdomen. Maya was surprised by this, but only for a moment. She understood, then, that Mordecai didn't want to give the man a quick death with a bullet to the skull. There were cries from downhill as Gary toppled to the ground. The bandits faltered, suddenly leaderless.

Maya turned and emptied the rest of her clip at them. Then she was moving, reloading as she went, pausing in her run by Gary's dying form. He was on his back, staring up at the sky, blood filling his mouth. Maya stared down at him, cold hate filling her heart.

"I take serious offense to that threat you made as well," she said, "It's a shame Bunny isn't here, or I'd enjoy seeing the skag eat you in pieces. I suppose this will have to suffice."

She aimed her pistol and fired. Her shot landed low on his torso, very low, and he convulsed and tried to scream, mouth gaping and blood overflowed out either side of his lips. His groin was a ruined mess of blood and tattered skin now, and Maya thought it a pity he only had a few moments left to live. It would have to do. Now, she had to get herself gone.

Mordecai was pulling Tasha out of the debris. The woman was unconscious, as Maya had feared, and Mordecai heaved her body over his shoulders. For how skinny he was, Maya was amazed he could handle even Tasha's slight weight. Then the two were running back towards the building, Mordecai amazingly able to keep pace, with Zero picking off anyone that followed. The bandits did not pursue further than Gary's body.


	8. Blah Blah Blah Binary

_Author's Note: I got tired of finding ways to explain when Mordecai is talking in Spanish without saying Spanish. We all know it's Spanish. I'm calling it what it is. Anyway, in this chapter, blah blah blah computer stuff. The more stuff I totally make up, the more fun it is, which kind of explains every Star Trek episode ever._

* * *

Tasha's prediction about the bandit gang had been accurate. They dissolved into in-fighting, seemingly content to leave the building alone and write it off as a loss so long as the vault hunters remained in residence. The four convened in the control room, scattered across the metal floor in quiet exhaustion. Tasha lay on her back with Zero sitting cross-legged nearby, watching her slow and even breathing. He hadn't attempted to wake her and seemed content to let her come around on her own. Maya had sent him after a med-kit from the runner, as he was adept at not being seen, and after he'd returned he'd apparently decided that was the extent of his help.

Mordecai was under Maya's care and the sniper was incredibly unhappy about it all. He'd been making an effort to empty his flask, which May suspected held something stronger than beer, and was still quite irate over how fast Gary had been.

"I mean, I blink, and that bastard had his hand around my wrist," Mordecai said, "I can't say I've seen someone move that fast in a while."

"I saw what happened," Zero said, "It was entirely your fault. If you hadn't been trying to keep yourself between the bandit and Tasha's position, he would never have gotten close enough to lunge like that."  
Mordecai fell silent and went still. He turned his head, gazing off at a wall, and after a moment Maya moved closer, pulling at the ties that held his vest closed. She'd already managed to get him to at least remove the harness he wore that carried his sword and rifle sling, now hopefully Zero's comment would take the rest of the fight out of him.

"C'mon," she said, "You got hit pretty hard. Let me see."

She drew the vest off without difficulty. The sniper muttered something under his breath and pulled his shirt up and over his head, tossing it aside. After a moment, he followed suit with both his bandanna and goggles and sat there, shoulders hunched, bare from the waist up. It was the first time Maya had seen him without the goggles. She hesitated a moment. He seemed even skinnier with the vest and shirt gone, but there was a layer of muscle there, pressed tight between the skin and bone of his lean frame. His skin was marked with scars, thin ones from where bullets had gotten through his shield, and one particularly ugly one up around his shoulder. That had to have been a bad injury. And his face... was not what she expected. He had such an angry, violent demeanor that she expected it to be reflected in his eyes, but there was none of that there. The arrogance, similarly, was stripped away and for a moment she could only look at his eyes. There were lines there, etched in at the corners, drawn thin by the leanness of his features. He seemed restless, even though he remained motionless, and Maya saw in his expression – finally visible in its entirety – a sort of certainty. A fearless, reckless certainty. She looked away, unnerved.

"Lay back," she told him, drawing the med-kit closer, "The light is bad, I need to see your bruises better."

He complied, rolling back to lay with one arm tucked up under his head. He started to put the other across his stomach and then hesitated, remembering why it was she even asked, and put it by his side. Maya understood. He was uneasy, being taken care of like this. Maya hissed at the sight of his torso – even though he didn't betray it aside from a certain set to his jaw, Mordecai had to be in a lot of pain. The entirety of his abdomen was a single bruise, black in spots, bleeding out to a sickly purple along the edges where it wrapped around his side. There was another spot on his chest, along the left side, where the bruise was localized in one area as a massive crimson stain, flecked with green and yellow. It was right across the bottom two ribs.

"Who patched you up in the past?" she said, "When you were hunting for the first vault."

"Roland," he replied, "The man has got some field medic training. What about you four – Axton handle it?"

"Shit, no," Maya laughed, "It's Salvador."

"What, seriously?" He started to sit up and Maya pushed him back down to the floor with two fingers.

"Yes, seriously. He's... honest, in his own way, and I can trust that. I think Zero does too."

"I have my own reasons," the assassin replied.

"Besides, Zed's med-kits are pretty easy to use, lucky for you. Once all the bullets are out it's just picking the right syringe. For you... I'm pretty certain the ribs are cracked, if not broken, so I need – this one!"

"They're broken all right," Mordecai grunted, "This ain't the first time I've been punched in the chest – hijo de puta..! Damn Maya, could you have stabbed me any harder!?"

He rolled to his side, putting his back to the siren with an anguished groan. Maya had taken advantage of his momentary distraction to jab him with the syringe, emptying the contents in the area close to where he'd been hit in the ribs. Mordecai continued with his cursing, swapping entirely over to Spanish now, and Maya took no heed, merely removed from the kit the next syringe, the one labeled 'internal bleeding'. She jabbed this one into Mordecai's side and the sniper grunted in protest and muttered something that she believed translated to 'something-something bitch'.

"Unfortunately," Maya said, replacing the empty vials into their slots, "it seems Zed doesn't pack anything to help with being knocked unconscious or concussions. We'll just have to keep an eye on Tasha ourselves. Has she made any sign of stirring, Zero?"

"Not yet."

The assassin pushed himself to his feet, catching up his sniper rifle as he did. He nodded at Maya.

"Someone needs to keep an eye on the bandit camp, in case they organize."

"I'll join you," Maya replied, "You'll be fine here, right Mordecai?"

The sniper grunted in affirmation. Maya followed Zero down the hall to a ladder leading up to a roof access panel. The two made their way to the far end of the rooftop, settling down at the base of the satellite where they had a clear view of the camp below. The flood-lights had been shot out by this point, for reasons Maya couldn't quite discern. Possibly they thought it would help hide them from Zero's bullets, but Maya knew that the assassin had some sort of night vision built into his helmet. It wouldn't help them a damn if Zero decided he wanted to start picking off targets. She hoped he wouldn't. There was no need to antagonize them while they were still killing each other. The night was actually quiet now, apparently someone had managed to restore order. It would be dicey whether they were alive come morning, however, as now was when the opposition would be gathering their allies and getting ready for another bout of cold blooded murder. Maya squinted in the darkness. It looked like no one had touched Gary's corpse and she could see some movement near it, sharp motions, and she thought it looked like Bloodwing was still gorging herself on the dead.

"So," Maya said carefully, "Thoughts on all this?"

"Mordecai is deceptively competent."

"You wouldn't be following his orders otherwise, I imagine."

Zero tilted his head, as if in thought.

"Roland gives orders," he finally said, "Mordecai... simply expects everyone to follow where he leads. I am not sure if he's aware that this is what he's doing. Very different leaders. Not certain Mordecai even thinks of himself as a leader."

"I won't tell him so if you don't. I agree with that assessment. He seems to be the least hot-tempered of the three, in all honesty, even if he doesn't seem so on the outside. I mean, Lilith is – well, Lilith, and Roland is pretty even-keeled but he's also passionate. Which is a good thing, it's kept Sanctuary alive. But Mordecai?" She frowned. "He's got the same level of self-control you do, Zero, I think. Must be a sniper's trait. He just chooses to let something bleed through every now and then."

She thought of how he had shot Gary in the abdomen, carefully pinpointed to ensure he'd bleed to death and would take his time at it. There had been anger in that action, a quiet hate.

"I would disagree on that."

"Afraid he's going to usurp you?" She smiled. "Don't worry, I'll always root for team Zero. But we both agree Mordecai isn't leading us to our deaths. Tasha?"

"Unstable. Determined. Terrified."

Maya frowned at the last word.

"She overcomes it well enough, when she gets stuck in the fighting."

"No." Zero was quick to refute her, almost before she even finished her sentence. "There is fear in her every movement and those moments of ferocity are simply a different shaping of it. She expects to die each time. You can see it in her eyes."

He sounded so confident in his words. Maya wondered why this was, if perhaps he'd seen this sort of thing before. The siren knew she was a relative newcomer to the world of violence, that even though the cult had trained her she was not exposed to danger like she was here on Pandora. It had been... surprising, at first, but after the initial shock wore off she found she could bear violence well enough. There was something appealing about it, even. It had a way of making the world sharper, a narrow sort of clarity. But Zero was an assassin and he had seen violence and how it affected people far more than she had. It would stand to reason that despite his disconnection with those around him, that he would understand people's reactions better.

"So she's not going to be able to lead the Carrion Birds after this."

"I didn't say that. She has survived this long. I believe her control of the Carrion Birds will be complete and under her guidance, they will be devastating. A terrified leader is a very dangerous leader – it will be a violent, brutal regime. Mordecai and the others will be well to have her on their side, assuming Roland can direct the sword correctly. He has Lilith keep her bandits in check. There will be none of that with Tasha – she will need to be unleashed."

He paused.

"Or she'll die. I see no other option."

"She could leave it. Return to Sanctuary and stay there." Even as Maya said it, she knew it wasn't going to happen. Maya wasn't one to believe in fate – she'd become disillusioned after being raised to be a goddess – but in this instance, she could almost see its strands in play.

"Things are going to get much bloodier before this is done," Maya said and she heard the hollowness in her own words. Zero nodded softly in agreement. Neither of them spoke for the rest of the time they stood watch.

* * *

Tediore followed through with their promise to be in contact within a day. Mordecai called the two down from the roof over ECHO and the four gathered in the control room to hear what the man had to say. It was the same individual as before, looking as prim as ever. Maya was surprised to see that Mordecai had not yet fully dressed and instead wore only his vest, hanging open at the front so that the bruises across his body were clearly visible. He was moving slower now as well, his shoulders hunched unconsciously against the pain that Maya was certain was plaguing him. Tasha was also awake – at last – and she had a sort of glassy look to her eyes. The Tediore representative conspicuously eyed the crew from the other side of the viewscreen and Maya wished for a brief moment that they'd thought to kill video feed from their end first.

"So..." the man said carefully, "I assume the cold blooded murder didn't go as smoothly as anticipated?"

"No," Mordecai replied, "I think we all learned an important lesson from it though."

"Oh?"

"Yeah. Shoot the guy before he can hit you."

"I'll keep that in mind if I ever find myself brawling drunkenly in a gutter." The tone of voice implied that this was something that would never, ever, happen. "So. After reviewing the information provided, we have a few questions for... skag-girl."

"Yes? What?" Tasha snapped to alertness.

"First off, how did you interface with the digistruct units without triggering the self-destruct sequence?"

"I – what?" She blinked at him in confusion and even Maya was startled into paying closer attention.

"The self-destruct," the man replied patiently, "You know, when you access the root menu of the unit, there's an EMP pulse and the damn thing has to be restored to original settings?"

"Oh. Well, I don't actually use the interface. I, uh, well."

"She's illiterate," Mordecai supplied. It was apparent Tasha wasn't going to volunteer the information and the sniper seemed to want to hurry things up. Again, Maya was reminded that Tasha had admitted Mordecai wasn't exactly nice to her.

"I read the bits," Tasha continued, no longer looking at the screen but instead at the ground, "So I don't use the interface, I just patch in with a hard connection and read the on and off signals and decipher that."

"Wow," the Tediore representative whistled, "That's, uh, I'm not certain if that's genius or insanity. I guess it got around the self-destruct trigger, probably because whoever programmed it didn't think anyone would be so abysmally stupid to go at it in such a backwards way."

"Please don't insinuate Tasha is stupid," Mordecai replied, as calm as he was when he announced she was illiterate, "Or else I'll come shoot that pretty face of yours to pieces when I get off this rock."

"Oh good, death threats. Pandora's version of a friendship bracelet. I can tell we're really getting along splendidly now. Also, I am glad to hear that skag-girl has a real name rather than just a charming colloquialism. I was getting worried. Anyway, we've had our engineers looking at the data – and since it appears to be legit now – we think we've come up with a way to isolate what Hyperion has done. We're going to branch the digistruct traffic and drop Tediore onto a separate network, as well as introduce common functionality to branch any other traffic off the main stream and give control of it to the creator. Essentially, we're dividing the network into dozens of sub-networks. We want to pilot this on Pandora and if it works, we're going to introduce it to the Planetary Standards Committee."

Mordecai frowned and his eyes narrowed. It was strange to actually see them out from behind the goggles.

"Won't that take forever?"

"That's what bribes are for. And with the data found in the dumps you sent us, we'll be able to blackmail Hyperion into staying out of it – maybe even force them to sponsor the effort if we're feeling especially dickish. When it passes, it'll mean that the digistruct network as a whole will be less secure to outside hacking, but more secure from inside jobs, like what Hyperion has done. Might even net Tediore a new revenue stream, as we can lease out our channel to people who need to use the digistruct network but don't have the resources to secure their own channel. Brilliant, huh?"

"Yeah," Tasha said distantly, her mind clearly drifting off down a different path, "So, in lieu of a bounty payment, can we instead have reserved space on the Tediore channel?"

"I'll have to clear it with my superiors. What sort of traffic will this channel see?"

"Vehicle construction," Mordecai replied, seeing where Tasha was going with the request, "Supply transfers across Pandora."

"My sword," Zero added.

"Basically, we just want Pandora's inhabitants outside of Hyperion control."

The man considered briefly. "Will it piss Jack off?"

"Immensely," Maya promised.

"I don't see any problems running it past my bosses then. If you have a unit handy, I'll send you the program needed to branch the network. It has to be uploaded at a central data terminal though, and it'll replicate throughout the system from there. It's not a fast process, so you'll have to hold the place against reinforcements for several hours. You understand what I'm saying here?"

Tasha was hooking up her unit to the console and watching the program download in silence. She understood. They all understood the difficulty.

"We got this," Mordecai said quietly, "I killed the damn Destroyer. Tasha has an entire bandit clan at her back. And those two behind me are going to hunt Jack down and rip his heart out with their bare hands before this is over. I think we're more than capable of storming a data center and holding it."

The Tediore man appeared unimpressed, but Maya had to assume that was only because he was very biased against Pandorans. He should be impressed. He should be damn impressed and grateful this meeting wasn't face-to-face. She had a feeling Zero might have stabbed him by now otherwise. Friendly-like. Maybe in the leg.

"Right," the man said colorlessly, "I'll be shocked if I see all four of you alive again. Good luck."

The connection terminated and Tasha unhooked her unit and returned it to her satchel. The four looked at each other.

"A data center," Mordecai groaned, "We're going to be up to our ears in loaders. Maya, see if you can't contact your erstwhile companions. Surely they've got to have scrounged up a vehicle by now. Tasha, rally your Carrion Birds. We need a bandit clan for this one. Assaults we can do. Holding it? Not so much."

Maya nodded slightly and turned her attention to her ECHO. She wasn't one to believe in fate, but her earlier prediction that things would get bloodier before this was over seemed almost prophetic.


	9. Traveling North

_Author's Note: Honestly, this entire chapter could have been replaced with a time skip and a bit of exposition from Maya. But it exists, it's here, and I'm sorely missing snow right now so you get lots of talk about snow and cold. Sorry for the slow update this time, I got bombarded by stuff. I am getting published - it's just a short story in a local anthology, and there's been a lot of other irl stuff going on this past week or so. I needed a fanfiction break from life, do some easy writing, give my brain a chance to reboot before I start back in on the difficult stuff I gotta get done this weekend._

* * *

As it turned out, Axton and Salvador had not, in fact, acquired a vehicle by this point. Instead, they had acquired both the attention and the ire of the local bandit gangs and were engaged in a running war with it seemed every living creature in their nearby vicinity. Both of the men seemed rather pleased by this and Maya cut the conversation short before she lost her temper with them both. They had a long road ahead and it wouldn't do to start in on them now, nor to hold a grudge. Sometimes things went wrong, she told herself. Still. She knew with a cold certainty that this would make her own task that much more dangerous. With this news in hand, she returned to the control room where Mordecai had finally decided to put his shirt back on. He was fastening the clasps on his vest as Maya walked in and did not look up.

"So?" he asked.

"They won't be making it. They're stranded out on a peninsula and the only way back is through a bunch of angry bandits. They plan to just wait it out until they've shot enough to push through without getting swarmed and then pick up a vehicle on the other side."

"How the hell did they manage that?"

"I dunno. You'd think Axton would have better tactical sense than to pick someplace with no exit, but he swears he didn't realize the entire thing was a peninsula until they'd explored the place. They got a choke point, at least, but they're not getting past it either. Salvador seems happy. I think Axton is too."

Mordecai looked up sharply, his hands paused on the last clasp just below his collarbone. He seemed about to speak, but Zero cut in.

"You explained the severity of the situation?"

"I only said we were trying to restore the digistruct network and needed their help. Axton sounded like he genuinely regretted not being able to come to our aid, so I left it at that. I'm not going to be bitching at them for things they can't control."

The assassin made no reply to that, so Maya could only assume that meant he concurred. Not for the first time – and certainly not for the last – she wished he were not so stubbornly enigmatic, that he would display some sort of emotion so that she could better understand him. Sometimes she hesitated to even think of him as a man, the word felt out of place for someone so ruthlessly efficient and so detached from the world around him.

Tasha fared far better with securing help. She returned with the announcement that her Carrion Birds had managed to salvage or steal enough runners to arrive in force. The timing would work well, as they would take a few days to catch up and that would allow the four to scout the outpost first and ascertain the best approach. It was some distance north from their location, situated along the crest of a mountain range. It was also located in the frost line, so they'd be encountering snow before they even started the ascent and it would only get worse from there. There was no way to tell if the runners would be able to take the road up, as it all depended on both weather conditions and if the road was engineered to remain clear or if Hyperion supplied the center through digistruct and orbital drop-offs and didn't bother with keeping the center accessible. As such, the four couldn't really plan, and would have to wing it when they got there.

The bandit camp beyond did not bother them overly much as they abandoned the outpost. There was a scattering of fire, but nothing sustained or earnest, and Maya was able to reach the driver's seat of her runner without a single flash of her shield. Zero once again took over the driver's position and Maya opened a short-range channel with him as soon as she'd pulled the runner into line behind Mordecai and Tasha.

"You're going to do the scouting, aren't you?" she asked.

"Yes. Mordecai is a sniper and nothing more. He won't be capable of infiltrating."

"And myself?"

There was a long pause. Maya wasn't certain she wanted to know Zero's response. Both prospects were frightening. If she went with him, there would be the constant fear of discovery, an itch that felt like a cross-hair centered on the back of her neck, and an almost wild desire to simply have someone fire that first shot and be done with it. If she remained behind, there would be the fear of uncertainty, of not knowing if Zero was going to come back or not and what that would mean for the three waiting.

"Your phase-lock would be invaluable. Any combat will likely be hand-to-hand – is this acceptable?"

"I can handle it."

"Very well. Both of us shall go then."

That settled it. Maya shivered and said nothing more, letting her thoughts drift aimlessly and chase over possibilities of what could be over and over again. She'd never attempted to get in and out of a building unseen before. This was a new beast entirely and she could not help but be afraid she'd not be up to the task, that she'd endanger all of them with one careless move. Still. Zero had taken his time considering and if he did not deem her up the task, she had no doubt he would have said so. That would have to be her confidence.

* * *

The four rotated drivers periodically, as their pace meant that the gunners had very little to do. There were packs of skags, of course, but unless the beasts were on the hunt they showed little inclination to give chase so long as the runners stayed on the road and out of their territory. There were bandit camps, but these too were set off the main road, and the one road barricade they came across they simply evaded by going off-road and the long way around. Mordecai didn't seem to want to invite more trouble than he had to and Maya had to agree with the decision. When they swapped out drivers, they also swapped out fuel cells and Maya set up the empty ones to charge while they drove. The runners had a solar panel nestled just behind the driver's seat, between the roll cage and the turret, and this would charge the spare cell.

"We've a long way to go still," Zero said as she locked the unit back into place, "It's mostly flatland ahead, so I doubt we'll have any difficulty while I'm driving."

"In other words, you just gave me permission to fall asleep until my next shift. Thanks Zero, you're the best."

Mordecai was walking over. He gave each a short nod in way of greeting.

"We've got another ten hours of driving," he said, "I want to stop at the base of the mountains so we can rest and wait for Tasha's Carrion Crows to catch up before we start the ascent. If the road is watched, I want to have them ready to go in case we need to start our assault prematurely."

"No," Zero said, "You will wait. Maya and I will go on foot and do the reconnaissance."

The sniper's lips twisted in a bemused sort of grimace. Maya returned the gesture with a thin smile.

"Do you have cold weather gear?" he asked. It was the closest to a protest he was going to get, she realized.

"I don't," Maya said, "We packed light. I, uh-"

"I'll loan you what I have. Zero, you'll be fine?"

The assassin nodded yes.

"Alright then. This is good. I actually like this plan a lot better. Then for the last leg of the journey, I want both of you on turret so you can sleep. We'll stop four hours from the mountain range base."

He turned to go, calling out to Tasha that there was a change of plans. Maya watched him go thoughtfully.

"He's giving orders," she said in an undertone to Zero.

"I noticed."

"Are you actually going to follow them?"

Zero just turned and climbed into the driver's seat. With a shrug, Maya stepped up onto the side of the runner and pulled herself up and into the turret.

* * *

The rest of the journey was uneventful. The cold woke Maya before they were scheduled to stop once more. They were well into the day-cycle by this point and would be so for some time, but there was a cloud cover that reduced the land to a sort of gray twilight. The land was muted and Maya watched the scenery through squinted eyes, struggling to adjust to the unnatural half-light. Her internal clock had been ruined for almost a week when she first arrived on Pandora, and she was finding that it had been sent right back into that uneasy state of never quite knowing what time it was or how her body should respond to her surroundings. The terrain was no longer quite as flat and the runner dipped and bowed over swells in the road like a boat on the ocean, and on either side of the road rose peaked drifts. They were further into the frost-line than she'd been led to believe. This part of Pandora rarely – if ever – saw spring.

The terrain grew steadily more difficult as they neared the mountain range. They were in the foothills now and these were not the gentle rolling hills of her home planet. They were like scattered towers, the wind wearing the sides down into ridged strips, sheer and jagged. They cast no shadow, for the light was too diffuse, and it seemed like they had simply been placed into the snow like sticks, that they weren't anchored to the planet at their base. The road was narrower and in places the snow covered the pavement. Zero handled these with ease, taking them straight on and keeping the runner even until they were through. Maya had slid off the road the first time she hit a slick patch and almost flipped the runner when two of its tires had fallen into a ditch hidden by the snow. She'd improved somewhat since then.

As Mordecai had instructed, they stopped about four hours out from the mountain range. It hovered on the horizon, an indistinct blur against the pallid sky. Maya found she was stiff from sleeping in the turret and she stretched her arms over her head after climbing out. The wind bit into her exposed skin but it wasn't a danger, not yet. It would be, she could tell. Mordecai was walking over to their runner, carrying a blanket under his arm. He handed this off to her.

"Tasha is wearing my jacket," he explained, "She doesn't have anything, either, and she'll be more exposed to the wind while driving. She'll give it to you when we stop though."

"She's got everything in that runner though," Maya protested. She saw in the corner of her eye Zero climbing out of the driver's seat.

"Well, she's never been this far north. In fact, this is the first time she's seen snow."

Something clicked in Maya's head. She shot Zero a furtive glance to see if he'd heard Mordecai's comment.

"Shit," Maya muttered, "You're driving this runner, Mordecai?"

"I am."

Maya didn't waste any time climbing back into the turret, effectively claiming it as hers before Zero could piece together the same thing the siren had. The assassin paused and looked up at her and she glared down defiantly at him. Then he continued on, up towards the runner sitting idle just ahead on the road. Mordecai took his place and buckled himself in.

"You going to stay warm?" Maya asked over ECHO as she slipped lower into the turret, covering herself with the blanket. There was enough space behind the gunner's seat for her to fit and it would keep her out of the wind.

"I'm fine," he replied, "I'm a hell of a lot hardier than I look. And I told Tasha to take it slow, she's not going to spin out."

"I did when I first arrived on Pandora. Not taking chances here."

"Were you taking it slow at the time?"

"...I was trying to make a ninety-degree turn. At full throttle."

"There's something wrong with you sirens. I think being all-powerful and crap makes you suicidally reckless."

"It's not recklessness. It's stress-testing the runner's frame. Someone needs to make sure Scooter is keeping them in good repair."

Maya heard half of Mordecai's laugh before he killed the ECHO connection. The siren found that she couldn't really sleep as Mordecai had suggested for the rest of the drive, even though she was plenty warm under the blanket. She'd gotten enough sleep during Zero's shift at driving and she spent the rest of the journey in a sort of half-sleep, hovering on the verge of consciousness. It wasn't exactly restful, but there was no talk over ECHO to keep her otherwise occupied and she could only see a portion of the gray sky from her tiny nook. It was strange how a long trip could be just as exhausting as combat, only in a different way. A sort of mental weariness. She hoped that the hike up the mountain would bring her back to full awareness before they actually attempted their assault on the data center.

The hours passed in this daze and it didn't seem like long before the cadence of the runner changed. Maya lifted her head out of the blanket and watched as Mordecai brought it off the main road, the tires crunching over the deep snow. He took them along the base of the mountain, driving slowly so that Tasha wouldn't be out of her league any more than she already was, until the road was well out of sight. Only then did he kill the engine. Maya pulled herself out before it had finished idling down and shook herself, wincing at the stiffness that resulted. Tasha and Zero both were making their way over to the two. Mordecai was climbing free, hindered somewhat by Bloodwing. The bird had taken up residence on the inside of Mordecai's vest and he'd unclasped it a third of the way down to make room for her. She didn't seem inclined to leave, either, and so he held her in place with one hand as he walked.

"That's so cute," Maya said.

"I know," Mordecai agreed, sounding more pleased than she'd ever heard before, "She got sleepy and wanted to nestle in close. This is why she's my best friend."

There were so many comments Maya could make, but she had a feeling every single one would come back to haunt her in some way, so she remained silent. Tasha walked up to stand next to her, stripping off Mordecai's jacket. It was brown leather on the outside and the inner layer was a synthetic black fleece. It wouldn't be enough to ward off the cold with just that, and as Maya put it on she knew there was a third layer between the fabric that would either trap her own body heat or generate its own warmth. She zipped it up to her chin and rolled the sleeves up a couple times until they were above her wrists. It was much too large, but it was better than freezing to death. Tasha had already started shivering without the jacket and Mordecai frowned at this. Maya wasn't concerned. He'd find some way to take care of her until the rest of the Carrion Birds arrived.

"Well," Mordecai said, pausing uneasily, "This is it. Keep us apprised. We'll have our ECHOs open."

"We'll get in and survey the layout of the building," Zero said, "If possible, we'll find a good hiding place to await your attack so that we can start from the inside."

"Sounds good. Have fun. Go kill people."

"That's not the point of infiltration." Maya could only assume Zero was annoyed. It wasn't like his inflection ever changed much.

"Only if you do it the boring way."

Zero turned towards the mountain. Maya hesitated a moment before following. Mordecai was no longer paying attention, instead turning back towards the runner to rummage through Tasha's supplies. Skag-girl, for her part, was standing still in the snow, watching Maya with wide eyes with her arms wrapped tight against her scrawny frame, shivers shuddering across her body.

"Good luck," she said to the siren. Then she turned and hurried off after Mordecai, and Maya was left to follow Zero up into the mountains.


	10. Mountain Climbing

_Author's Note: To the ZeroxMaya shippers: Merry Christmas._

* * *

Maya was grateful for Mordecai's jacket even before they were out of eye-shot of the runners. The wind was worse as they ascended the mountain and it stung at her exposed cheeks and bit through the cloth of her pants. The jacket kept her core warm, however, and she was able to keep her blood circulating this warmth by constant movement, ever upwards. Zero led the way, moving easily through the snow and picking the path where it was the thinnest. The siren wondered if he had something in his helmet that helped him navigate the terrain with such surety, or if he'd simply had far more experience than she had. Maya struggled to keep up, her feet slipping on stones when the snow thinned and there was nothing but a thin layer of ice to coat them. She realized that Zero was careful to not step on any exposed surface and so she tried to mimic his steps, watching where he left footprints in the snow and walking close to his. His stride was much longer, however, and she found herself almost having to take two steps for his one.

They stopped, once, and Zero edged off onto a ridge to survey the terrain ahead. The mountain split here, with a ridge branching off to connect to the next mountain in the range. The assassin remained perched there for a long while, kneeling with one hand gently touching the snow, and Maya walked closer, curious as to what he was looking at. Zero snapped his head up and turned his shoulders to regard her, holding up his free hand to indicate she should come no further.

"It's a cornice," he said, "I am not certain it'd hold both of us."

"They why in hell are you on it?" Maya whispered.

He turned back without a reply, staring ahead along the ridge-line. Then he edged back, carefully and Maya realized she was holding her breath until he was safely back on solid footing beside her.

"What were you doing on a snow cornice?" she repeated.

"I did not realize it was one until I was standing on it. But." He gave a slight shrug, a subtle gesture but for him, it was a very intentional one. "It held my weight. So."

"Okay. Whatever. We've got to cross that ridge, don't we?"

"Yes."

"Are we clear?"

The assassin was quiet for a moment and he turned, facing the ridge and putting his back to Maya. The siren stepped up to stand directly beside him, shoulder-to-shoulder, although their height difference made it more like shoulder to ribcage.

"Perhaps. I doubt the data center will have surveillance on this approach, but if they do, there is nothing we will be able to do to protect ourselves. Furthermore, if that snow breaks loose, it could trigger an avalanche."

"It's a narrow ridge."

"Yes."

"So what you're saying," Maya said with a sigh, "Is that we could both die a very quick and ignoble death simply by walking from point A to point B. Sounds great. Let's go."

"Death by suffocation is not a quick death," Zero replied, "I should go first."

Maya hesitated. There was an odd cadence to his words and for a moment, Maya found herself repeating his two phrases and absently counting as she did so. When she was done, she couldn't help but give the assassin a frown of irritation, even though he had moved in front of her and could not see her expression. He had her listening for haikus now, whenever his speech fell even remotely close to the correct number of syllables.

The two progressed out onto the ridge, moving slowly, and Zero walked with a sort of light crouch, putting his feet down with a surety that Maya certainly did not feel. He was far more careful than before now, and his steps were close enough together that Maya could easily walk within his prints. She wondered if this was deliberate, but did not want to waste her breath asking him until they were at the other side. The ridge was wider now that she was on it than it had appeared, but that was not much of a comfort. If she stretched her arms out to either side, her shadow would touch open air on either side. The wind was worse now that they were no longer buffered by the mountain side, and it whipped Maya's hair into a frenzy and stung droplets of ice and snow against her cheeks. She found that her muscles would not relax, which was not surprising. She often felt this tenseness when walking along the edge of some steep drop, or climbing along rooftops or narrow walkways, a sort of unconscious preparation by her body for quick movement in case of a fall. It had saved her before, but Maya knew that this time, there wasn't likely to be a second level or some jutting piece of the structure to grab hold of. There was only a steep line of snow beneath her, and if the side of the ridge came down with her she'd be buried and nothing would save her then.

It was like this for the entire crossing. Maya found that she was trembling by the time they reached the other side, and she collapsed into the snow once she was confident they'd reached safety. She stared numbly at the ridge behind them and was astonished at how short it was – it hadn't' felt that way while she was on it.

"Zero," she said wearily, "We're killing everyone inside that building when the attack starts, right?"

"That is the plan."

"Good. Because I want to take the nice, safe road down on our way out without being shot at."

"How do you intend to help me infiltrate the compound?"

The question was surprising, simply because Zero didn't ask many questions. Maya struggled to her feet and started walking in the direction she assumed the data center was in and Zero quickly followed, easily outdistancing her once more and taking the lead. The assassin seemed more in his element now, Maya thought. Normally he was not so forward and instead let the other three go first, preferring to stay at an ideal range and take his shots at his leisure. He was certainly aggressive and prone to violence, but it was in a detached sort of way, a cold killing with only a base enjoyment of the act. Maya would call him simplistic in this, but something told her that Zero was anything but simplistic. He was simply different – very different – enough so that she understood why some whispered he wasn't actually human.

Maya refused to believe that. She couldn't quite bring herself to.

She wondered if she'd see another side of him here, in this mission. There was the methodical sniper, the fury of when he was unleashed into close combat – a torrent of movement and aggression, and now she wondered what aspect would take hold once they reached the base.

"I'm going to follow your lead," Maya said in response to his question, "You appear to know what you're doing far better than me."

"Good. I do."

It was some time more before they came within sight of the data center. It was perched on a ledge, shielded by the side of the mountain, and there was evidence that the rock had been blasted away to make room for the structure. There was only one approach to it, the road to the front gate, and the rest was sheer cliff. Maya realized that Zero was angling them directly for that cliff. They'd have to climb down into a depression and then back up – a climb of about fifty meters.

"Shit," Maya whispered, coming to a stop, "That's quite a climb."

"We only need go halfway. There's an access vent there on the side."

"They'll have some sort of security on that."

"With luck, it'll be something dangerous. I need a challenge."

And here she was worried she'd be the one to trigger an alarm. Maya blew out a breath and reluctantly followed the assassin off the road and down towards the cliff edge. Getting down wouldn't be as much a problem as getting up, she realized. Her gear included inertia dampeners which would absorb the fall. It was a tossup between those and her shield as to which had saved her life more often. Zero paused on the edge of the cliff, gazing down, and then he hopped lightly off into open air and vanished from sight. Maya followed close behind, watching the earth vanish away beneath her to reveal a slope about twenty meters down. She angled herself feet first and hit it hard, the dampeners taking most of the force but still sending a shiver of a shock up through her legs and into her hips. She skidded on the scree and snow, falling back, and the rest of her fall was more a semi-controlled slide. Maya had to bite back profanities, kicking in attempt to get some purchase, and then the slope evened out and she was able to regain her feet for about thirty seconds before the snow upset her and she went tumbling forwards, aiming head-first for the ground.

Zero caught her. The assassin's arms caught her about the chest, spun her about, and then she was brought up short by impacting into his body. She remained there a moment, her fingers pressed against the cold material of his suit, and his hands were splayed against her back, his helmet tilted so that the edge of it almost touched the top of her head.

"That," Maya said breathlessly, "could have gone better."

Zero didn't reply. He simply let go of her and the two pulled apart, Maya looking away and letting the sting of the wind take the flush out of her cheeks. She was glad no one else was around to see that – although she was hard-pressed to say if it was her ungainly descent or Zero's resulting rescue. Probably both.

The assassin was already walking over to the cliff-side they'd be scaling, a short distance away. He was staying close to the cliff face, she noticed, and every now and then he'd pause and survey the rock. Looking for security cameras or other such devices, she thought. They were so small that they'd be almost invisible to the human eye, but surely as an assassin, Zero had some sort of technology in that helmet to identify them. Maya followed a good distance behind. She didn't want to interfere with his expertise with her own ignorance. By the time she reached the spot directly below the vent, Zero was already climbing. Maya stood there a moment, taking deep, even breaths to steady herself.

"Right," she whispered to herself, "I can do this."

It wasn't like a fall would do anything other than damage her already bruised pride. The siren flexed her hands to work some of the stiffness out, ruing the fact she didn't have gloves that were heated like Mordecai's jacket. Then she tentatively placed one toe on a jutting rock and shoved, lifting herself into the air and her hands clasped on the next handholds. The cold of the stone bit into her exposed flesh and she grit her teeth against the pain and pulled, letting the strength in her arms carry her up as she drew her legs up to search for purchase. She scrambled a moment until the toes of her boot dug in and then she pushed upward again, her knees scraping against stone. Again and again she repeated this process, her mind blank of everything save where she could find her next hand-hold. There was simply no room for any other thought, every part of her was focused on the task at hand. Dimly, she realized she would be an easy target if they were spotted, but there was nothing for it. She had to climb.

Zero helped her up the rest of the way. She stared numbly at his outstretched hand for a moment, then let go of the outcropping and clasped it. Her fingers wrapped around his forearm and his did the same, the grip painfully tight, and he drew her up. She walked along the cliff-face, both hands holding his now, and then she reached the edge of the vent and he gave one last pull and drew her inside onto her knees. The siren remained there, grateful for the feel of solid metal beneath her, catching her breath.

"I seem," she panted, "to recall that this vent was closed."

"Yes," Zero said.

"How?"

"I overrode the controls. Froze the security system as well – it's a pattern-recognition designed to electrocute anything living that tries to get in. It's set to recognize empty space right now, but we should move on quickly."

Maya gave a tight nod and Zero reached past her, dropping the panel down behind her and encasing them inside the vent. She could not see anything in the resulting darkness, and she told Zero this.

"It's straight ahead," Zero replied, "I will tell you if that changes. Keep one hand on the vent wall to guide you."

She heard him moving away and heart hammering, she followed, stretching out one hand to touch the metal side. The vent was too short to stand in, so she continued in a half-crouch, half-crawl, feeling like some sort of insect skittering in the darkness. There were a few turns in the venting and one upwards slope, and each of these Zero warned her in advance. Still, she found herself unnaturally tense from the constant darkness, shivering inwardly at being so helpless. Were it not for Zero's whispered instructions, she'd think herself utterly alone, for the assassin was silent as he moved. It was unnatural, unnerving. She almost wished he'd make some sort of sound so she wouldn't feel so lost in this darkness.

Then, Zero told her to wait, and there was a soft noise of metal on metal. The resulting light almost blinded her. Maya hissed and her eyes squinted up almost shut in reflex. She forced herself to look and she saw a dark shadow slip through the square of light and vanish somewhere below. Maya followed, slipping to her belly and staring out and down. They were in a hallway, somewhere deep inside the data center sub-basement, surrounded by the machinery that maintained the compound. She eased herself out, head-first, and flipped her legs over her head as she fell, landing feet-first in a crouch. It was some redemption from her earlier gracelessness in the snow, but Zero wasn't even looking to appreciate it. He was moving ahead, walking with a strange sort of grace, knees slightly bent, hands out to either side and she saw he had a weapon in one, but it was neither his gun nor a sword. A long knife, not quite the length of her forearm, with a slight curve and a faint blue-green sheen when it caught the scant light just so. Maya had no idea where this weapon came from.

They followed the metal grating of the sub-basement until they reached a wall, and Zero paused then to check around the corner, then he ducked back. He touched Maya's shoulder and held up one finger. She did not like looking at his hands. The fingers only served to remind her that he was something different, and she did not want to believe he was anything but human. It was easier that way. Then Zero pointed, down the hallway, and Maya nodded. One target. She stepped forwards, then side-stepped into the open space. There was a man a short distance down, reading something off the side of one of the box-like machines and making notes on a tablet. Maya pulled her power to herself, feeling the hair on the back of her arms stand on end in response, and made a sharp gesture. The man made to cry out but the phase-lock tightened and he remained frozen there, his arms thrown out to either side, his eyes wide, his mouth frozen in a surprised scream that hadn't had time to make itself heard. Zero was moving past her, running, and he had the knife swept back tight to his arm. She knew what was going to happen, saw exactly how it would go, and yet she stood there and held the phase-lock in place. Zero came up beside the man, stepping into the bounds of her power and she felt his presence – like a physical, tangible thing pressing in close against her chest, and then he brought his arm up and then down. For all his grace, it was still a savage gesture. The man couldn't even convulse – he just hung here as blood bubbled up in his throat and flowed in streams on either side of his lips. Then Maya released the phase-lock and Zero caught the body as it fell, dragging it towards the railing and then heaving it up and over. He followed it, hopping over the rail, and Maya walked over to peer down, watching him. He was dragging it to a dark corner between machines, pausing to search it over for anything useful. He came back carrying both the tablet and a identification pass.

"It should be some time before he's missed," Zero whispered, "Search this. Find schematics of the compound, if you can."

He handed the tablet to her, then pulled a round disk of metal about the thickness of her finger from his belt. It adhered to the back of the tablet and the screen went blank for a minute. An auto-hack. Maya eyed the assassin suspiciously. She knew he was wanted for political assassination and had done more than that, but now she wondered if perhaps he sometimes indulged in more than just cold-blooded killing. Spying, perhaps? A side-job when the killing wasn't challenging enough?

The tablet rebooted and Maya started pulling up folders seemingly at random. Zero was moving ahead, scouting out the rest of the sub-basement, leaving her to look through the hacked tablet. There appeared to be a floor-plan – no doubt used by the maintenance crew, and Maya tagged this one as something valuable, then hurried to catch up with Zero. He paused. There were stairs up ahead, and as she caught up he ducked into an alcove, leading against the wall and she followed suit.

"Yes?" he asked in an undertone.

"Found some stripped-down blueprints of the whole building. We should send this to Mordecai."

Zero peered at the tablet over her shoulder.

"I can tell you already what we need to ," Zero replied.

"Open the gates for them, right?"

"Yes."

"You and Mordecai aren't the only ones with a head for strategy."

"Give me a moment. I can update Mordecai without our communication being intercepted."

Maya frowned. Zero had gone still, the only indication that he was talking to anyone, and Maya wished he at least had the decency to turn his back to her like normal people did when having long-distance, private, conversations. She waited, listening to the hum of electricity around her, the tablet tucked under one arm, until Zero moved again to indicate he was done conversing.

"Tasha's bandits are seven hours out," Zero said, "We need to wait until they catch up."

"Are you serious?" Maya hissed in reply, "How the hell do we kill seven hours!?"

"We hide for the first five hours, then engage in judicious sabotage for the next two."

"They're going to miss that engineer long before then. We need to do something with the body to explain it."

A pause.

"Suicide or accident?"

Maya frowned as she considered this. "Accident," she finally said, "People don't typically slit their own throats."

Zero walked off to accomplish this, presumably leaving Maya to figure out where to hide. She considered the room. The sub-basement was certainly large and it didn't seem to be frequented very often. It was also noisy, which would mask the noises they made, but it would also mask anyone moving about in the area. She suspected Zero would be up to the task of this, however. The only entrance appeared to be the stairs and there were no walkways. This meant... she smiled. It was certainly a better option than the vents.


	11. Waiting Game

_Author's Note: I was so excited that I'd be able to put a part I have been looking forwards into this... and then I get towards the end and realize it'd fit better in the next chapter instead. I am sad._

* * *

A few hours later, both Maya and Zero lay on their bellies, staring down at the commotion below them. The machine they were perched on was a perfect box and Maya suspected it was did something to manage heating, judging by the warmth it gave off from behind all the metal plating. The top of it was almost to the ceiling, giving them about three feet of clearance, and judging by the dust that had accumulated no one ever thought to climb up on top of it. What's more, the noise of the machine was enough to obscure any conversation from the people below. Sadly, it also obscured the voices from Maya, so she resorted to making things up.

"Well guys," Maya said, pitching her voice low to imitate a man's tone, "I suppose there goes our injury free work-days tally. Why couldn't he have gotten his throat slit by an assassin turned vault-hunter instead? Those don't count against us."

There was a pause and Maya squinted, trying to see if anyone else was talking yet. When she saw that someone was, she changed her voice to something a bit higher for differentiation. Since Zero wasn't participating, she was forced to play all roles on her own.

"I suppose that's what we get for working for a murderous psychopath like Jack. We've only sold our souls for a steady paycheck, after all, it'd be no great loss if some siren came along and melted all our faces off next."

Maya fell silent again, for Zero had moved in closer so that they were almost touching, shoulder-to-shoulder, and then he spoke, in time with the moving lips of one of the three men standing around the remains of their assassinated coworker.

"Our comrade's body

torn to pieces, such a shame

blood soaking the gears."

Of course he'd think of a haiku. Maya grinned. At least he was participating, in his own way. Zero had pulled a panel off one of the machines and the two of them had thrown the body in when they found moving parts inside. The result had been a bit more spectacular than anticipated, and the corpse had wound up being shredded into a myriad of pieces, to the point it was now simply a pile of organic matter and blood. Unfortunately, she'd been standing closer to the machine when herself and Zero had heaved the body in, and now the front and one arm of Mordecai's jacket was soaked with a layer of blood. She'd left it to dry on the opposite end of the platform they were perched on. It'd take some serious work to restore it and Maya hoped she could somehow con someone else into doing it for her when they got back to Sanctuary.

There was also blood in her hair. It wasn't the first time, and she'd learned to simply leave it alone until she had an opportunity to wash it out. Once the blood turned sticky, any attempts to comb through it would only result in a gory rat's nest of knots.

"Aw, shit no," Maya grimaced, "They're leaving. I was about to come up with something clever, too. Are they seriously just going to leave that body there?"

"There's not much of it left."

"But the bloodstains are everywhere! That's unsanitary."

"It'll serve as a warning to others."

Maya had to pause at that, looking sideways at the assassin and wishing, as she so often did, that she could see his expression, just to gather a hint of what emotion his words were supposed to convey. She could not tell if his remark was meant to be humorous or not, and she wondered if perhaps that was also his intent. Surely not. Zero's sense of humor was not that subtle. She wasn't even certain he had a sense of humor.

"So what do we do now?" she asked.

"We wait. Once our backup begin their ascent, we'll start our assault."

"Is this what it's like being an assassin? A lot of waiting?

Zero edged back towards the middle of their perch, settling himself cross-legged, hands loosely draped over his knees. Even though Maya could not see his eyes, she somehow knew he was looking past her. Perhaps she'd become accustomed to how he held himself, or perhaps she was simply seeing what she wanted to in him.

"Yes," he replied, "It is planning and waiting. The moment of death is so unsatisfyingly brief – a few seconds of violent perfection – and then it is over."

"Do you ever botch a clean kill, just to make it more exciting?" It seemed like something he'd do.

"I never make mistakes."

"Oh, bullshit, Zero," Maya scoffed, "I've seen you fuck up. How about that time you failed to stick a landing and tumbled into an burning oil slick?"

Zero did not reply and Maya knew that she had proven her point. Salvador had pulled the assassin out, ignoring the flames that licked at him and had latched onto Zero with ferocity. It felt like it had taken forever to smother the flames, and when they were done Maya had wondered if Zero was not dying, for he had simply lain there, shuddering. But as it was, the assassin recovered enough to continue on, and when they returned to Sanctuary he simply vanished for a time and Maya didn't know if he found solitude to lick his wounds in or if he'd gone to Dr. Zed.

There was little conversation after that. Maya cleaned her weapons, twice, poked at Mordecai's jacket before once again resigning it as a lost cause for now. She fell asleep for a little bit, and Zero woke her with a touch. He was already moving to the edge of the machine, peering down into the sub-basement to assure himself it was clear. Maya gathered up her assault rifle and followed him to the edge. He jumped and she followed, landing in a crouch, wincing at the noise her feet made on the grate upon impact.

"What now?" Maya whispered.

"We make our way to the controls for the gate," Zero replied, "Kill anyone that spots us and hide the body. Try not to be seen. I go first."

Maya tried to imitate the way he walked. He was very assured of himself and she noticed that while he did not walk in a crouch, he held himself in a wary sort of posture, his center of balance evenly poised so that each foot came down with careful precision. He hardly made a sound. It was difficult to emulate and it put strain on Maya's body in ways she didn't realize were possible – combinations of muscle she was not accustomed to using in such a way. They progressed up the stairs to the basement, then to the first floor of the complex. That was where they found their first human contact, and Zero gestured for her to stop and hold still, flattening himself against the wall. She did the same, heart pounding, mouth dry. There were footsteps in the hallway just ahead, branching off to the right, and Maya thought there was no way they wouldn't be seen. It was a long hallway so there was nowhere to run, and there was no cover. Zero was edging back, towards her, and he reached back with one hand, catching her gently at the waist and pulling her close so that his body was physically between her and the approaching man. Then – just as the Hyperion worker rounded the corner - Zero seemed to flicker – his entire image – and Maya felt like her heart skipped a beat. She saw the hallway and sort of a line, a distortion, like reality had been sundered and fallen a half-centimeter out of place in the outline of Zero's body. His hologram. Maya could barely breath. The man turned to walk away from them and by the time Zero's illusion faltered his back was to them and he seemed to have no inclination to turn around. The two waited there, pressed close together, until he was out of sight.

"I can't believe that worked," Maya finally gasped, taking her fingers away from Zero's back.

"Humans are attuned to movement," Zero replied, his voice also low, "It takes very little cover to evade detection so long as one remains still."

"But I wasn't covered by the hologram, was I?"

"You were behind me. It gives me the illusion of invisibility – not transparency."

"Oh," she whispered, realizing what he meant, "I see."

It must extend his surroundings as a holograph across the surface of his suit. She wondered how much control he had over it, if he could select elements to leave out – such as Maya crouching just behind. Apparently so, for they'd just evaded their first patrol.

The base, for all it did, had remarkably little staff. The two made their way through it, up to the second floor where there was a covered walkway leading to the walls. Zero had to stop a handful of times to disable security cameras, for which he had specialized gear to both detect and freeze them so the two could pass by without triggering an alarm. She'd never seen him use it before, but then again, they'd never had a reason for stealth before. Not with Axton or Salvador around. Zero's stealth was assured with those two present, for everyone was focused on the two brawny men brandishing heavy guns to notice the assassin bringing up the rear, crouching yards back with a sniper rifle. Maya doubted they even realized what had happened when Zero blew their brains out. Sometimes, she got the same impression when she killed someone, that the bandit or Hyperion soldier hadn't even realized she was there up until the point she stepped in close and shot him in the chest.

The control room for the gate itself wasn't a very big room, simply a widening of the walkway with a number of windows and a console. There was a single man stationed there, sitting in a chair and half-dozing. Zero simply walked up to him from behind and there was a flash of movement, then the man was kicking and struggling, clawing at his neck with his fingers while Zero just held his hands tight together at the base of the man's skull. Maya caught a glimpse of a wire, buried into the man's skin, and she stood there in the doorway and watched. The man's flailing grew weaker and his helpless gurgling quieted to a murmur, and still Zero held on, even after the body had gone limp. Waiting until he was well and truly dead and not just unconscious. Then, when it was done, he relinquished his grip and let the body slump to the floor.

"Plug this into your ECHO," Zero said, turning to Maya and handing her an attachment for the unit, "It'll cloak your signal. Then get in touch with Tasha and have her help you get the gate open."

Maya eyed the console. It appeared to be simple enough to just open the gate, but this also appeared to be an auxiliary station. There was a very good chance that whatever she did could be overridden from the central controls inside the actual building itself. However, if Tasha could patch her in through a backdoor, then they'd own the base without taking the control center and without them being able to override her.

"Where will you be?" Maya asked.

"Standing watch."

He moved out into the hallway. There was another door in the control room, on the opposite end, and Maya checked to make sure it was locked before turning back to the console and opening a connection to Tasha. She was quick to answer.

"We're almost there," the girl said, "You ready for us?"

"That's why I'm calling. We need to get the gate open in such a way that they can't close it. We're in the gate control station, not the main one."

"Easy enough. Pull off the panels and send me an image of the wiring."

Maya did as asked, then switched her ECHO unit over to visual and directed the lens across the interior of the control unit.

"Okay, not so easy," Tasha said uneasily, "That's, uh, that's a non-standard wiring there. At least, non-standard for what I've seen. Instead of reprogramming it, let's just open the gate and short out the system. You'll need to prep it a bit first, as we want the short to travel across to the mechanics of the gate itself, rather than simply burn out all the circuitry in the room and nothing more. Here's what you do."

Maya followed Tasha's instructions, blindly rewiring as the girl dictated, trusting that Tasha knew what she was doing well enough that nothing would go wrong. It was a terrifying sort of arrangement, for Maya was keenly aware that she had no idea what she was doing and was utterly dependent upon Tasha's directions. Tasha, however, seemed unconcerned by it all and there was a hint of familiarity in her tone.

"Have you done this before?" Maya finally asked, "Rewired something across ECHO."

"Yeah. I get bandits to help me with the really big repair jobs and they're sometimes strewn out across several locations. They still manage to botch it though, get all nervous about cutting a red wire and cut a blue one instead or something equally stupid."

"I see. I'm done pulling those three circuitboards out now."

"Good. All that's left is to open the gate and then connect the two big wires I had you leave laying out."

"How close are you?"

There was a pause and ECHO went dead for a few minutes. Maya waited patiently until the connection clicked open once more.

"Mordecai says we're close enough that you can trigger it anytime. And Maya?"

"Yeah?"

Tasha seemed worried now, her voice had lost the confidence it had while she was dictating what Maya needed to do to rewire the controls.

"I'm not certain that this won't hurt you. I've had you remove all the safe-guards."

"You're saying I could get electrocuted."

"Yes."

"How bad?" Maya asked, poised there with the two wires clasped in one hand, the other poised over the controls to open the gate. There was a significant pause.

"You have a shield, right?"

That was answer enough. Maya steeled herself, took a deep breath, and keyed in the command to open the gate. There was the hoot of a warning alarm, just outside, and then a rumble as the mechanics hidden inside the wall started to pull the massive sheets of metal apart in either direction. They slid smoothly aside, revealing the road beyond, scattered with a dust of snow around the edges. There was a mechanical overlay of background noise in the small control room as someone opened up a channel to the console. She could hear people moving about, talking in low voices, then a man's voice came from the speaker mounted on the panel before her.

"Jeffrey, why the hell you opening the front gate?" the voice said, clearly annoyed.

Maya couldn't help but grin and open up a channel so that she could reply. Screw subtlety. The time for stealth was over.

"Hi! Jeffery is dead," she said in return, "I'm one of the vault-hunters. We're here to kill every single one of you sons of bitches. Cheers."

And she touched the tips of the two exposed wires together. There was a flash of light, then nothing.


	12. Timing

_Author's Note: Knowing my luck, we'll find out in Borderlands 3 that Zero is indeed an alien and has teal skin and magenta blood. But until then, I SHALL MAKE STUFF UP._

* * *

She was trying to move. There were words, distant, and she struggled as hands clawed at her arms, at her shoulders. There was an impact against the side of her body, a hard shove, and then a pause before the hands grew more insistent now, locking tight around her arms and giving them a sharp jerk. The movement jolted her head against the steel floor and for a moment, she was awash in pain before it drug her back down into the darkness.

Maya became aware again to a steady drip, the sound of liquid splashing against liquid in even intervals. She felt removed from her senses, her eyesight was a blur of light and shadow and her fingertips were numb. There was sound, but it was distant, as if she heard it from deep underwater, and the only thing she could hear clearly was the steady drip, as if it came from somewhere inside her, a rhythm like her own heartbeat. She tried to move and found that it hurt, a searing ache, bone-deep pain that chewed at her body – a dull pain, constant and unyielding. Her back was on the floor, her limbs sprawled out, palms up. She lay there a moment more, blinking her eyes, feeling them fill with moisture, and the shadows and light swam into outlines.

There was a figure above her. She felt a thrill of fear for a moment, helpless as she was, until her gaze focused in and she was able to trace the contours of a lean body, sheathed in a gray and black suit. Zero. She exhaled. He knelt, one knee at her shoulder, the other leg tucked in close to his body, balanced on the toes down by her hip. His hand was pressed flat against the floor beside her right ear and his upper body was twisted, turned to the side, right arm raised. The roaring in her ears was clearing and she heard gunshots now, from some distance away, and also from right above her – the sharp retort of Zero's pistol, a careful and deliberate answer. There was a iridescent blur in the air around them for a moment, the crackle of ozone as a shield absorbed a bullet, and she wondered why there was no notification from her HUD. There was nothing at all, she realized. Her vision was only what her eyes could see; Zero's crouched form, the control room devoid of artificial light around them.

She shifted, slightly. Something warm slid down her collarbone, tickling the side of her neck like a caress, and there was a familiar – sickly sweet – smell in the air. The collar of her shirt was wet. There was a flash of movement and she both felt and heard the drip of liquid this time, the drop joining the puddle in the hollow between her collarbones before continuing down into the stream along the side of her neck. Blood. Not hers.

"Zero," she whispered, and it felt she was trying to talk through a mouth full of cotton.

"Stay still," he replied, his voice low, "Your shield is down and we're pinned."

As if on cue, there was a hail of bullets around them, and Maya flinched despite Zero's warning. Zero maintained his balance, even with her gesture, and his shield danced like an aurora around the two. Zero waited a moment, sighting down his pistol's scope, then fired twice. There was another lull in gunfire as their attackers dove back under cover. Hopefully they'd be scared long enough to allow Zero's shield to recharge.

"Let me up. I can phase-lock someone."

It would be an effort. She wasn't even sure she could stand at this point, but there were few options.

"No," he replied, his voice strained, "Stay down. They have a sniper."

And now there were fewer. She cast her gaze upwards, towards the back of the room. The walls were ringed with windows. The door to her left was open and judging by how heavy the metal appeared, Maya doubted that even the two of them would be able to budge it, not with the power out. Their attackers were off down the hall, where the corridor turned a bend and they could duck back into cover before stepping out to fire at the two of them at their leisure. And the sniper... if the sniper wanted at them, he'd only have to move position and take his pick of which window to fire through. No doubt that was what he was doing now. Maya saw a spray of blood on the other side of the room, close to where she had stood when she short-circuited the system, and she could imagine how it had played out. The feedback had channeled through her and while her shield had kept her alive, it had still left her senseless. Zero had come to her aid – and while he knelt by her side the sniper had punched through both his shield and his body. He'd pulled her away, to a spot where the angle would protect them for a short time, and then gotten pinned by the gunfire from the corridor. Now he knelt here, shielding her with both his own shield and his body, unwilling to relinquish the position for fear of the sniper. If he let Maya up, she'd be unshielded, and easy prey to his bullets.

But this was a waiting game that couldn't last forever. Already, the gunmen in the corridor were firing again, staccato bursts, and Maya couldn't imagine Zero's shield had even begun to recharge yet. Something would have to be done, as time was not on their side. Unless...

"Zero," Maya hissed, rolling carefully onto her side, trying not to disturb Zero's stance, "We need to surrender."

"_What?_"

For all his indignation – and there was genuinely emotion in his voice this time – he didn't falter in returning fire back down the corridor. Maya pressed on.

"We have – what – a few minutes left before your shield gives out? And that sniper has punched through it once already – hasn't he?"

Zero did not reply. She twisted to look up and saw where the blood was falling free, at his hip, in the soft flesh near the bone. Clean through.

"Jack would love to have us alive," she continued, "Those Hyperion brutes know it. So, we surrender, and buy us enough time for Mordecai and Tasha to show up."

"They'll be holding a gun to the back of your head." His words were hissed and Maya could not tell if it was from pain or from anger that she'd suggest such a thing.

"Yeah." She paused. "Most likely. But we'll have Mordecai to handle that. Besides, we're not going to have a choice here-"

There was the crack of snapping glass. Zero was pitched back across Maya, falling away from her onto this back, his legs tangling with her body and she pulled herself clear, slamming her back against the wall and instinctively raising her hands to cover her head. The gunfire went over her head and then paused. She heard the sound of footsteps approaching at a run and she risked a glance – the Hyperion soldiers were moving in, rifles trained on her, and she kept her hands up near her head. Zero was struggling to roll to his side, his hand reaching out for his fallen pistol.

"For fuck's sake, stay down!" Maya hissed at him.

There was a dark red well at his shoulder and his right arm was pulled in close to his body, useless now. He could have handled this, she realized, he could have moved into the hallway where there was cover from the sniper and taken all those men out. He could have left her defenseless and saved himself.

Well. He'd come to Pandora looking for a challenge. Apparently having teammates was proving to be his greatest yet.

The soldiers were yelling orders, for Maya to get on her knees, hands on the back of her head. She complied and then one of the soldiers was grabbing at her waist, pulling her gun free, taking her grenades and useless shield. Someone else pressed the barrel of a pistol to the back of her head. She stared straight ahead, watching Zero out of her peripheral vision. He was trying to get up again, she saw, and one of the soldiers stood over him and raised his gun, the stock pointing down. It slammed against the back of his head and while Zero was thrown back to the ground, Maya knew his helmet would have shielded him from the blow. Hopefully he'd have the good sense to play unconscious – no.

He flipped to his side, his left hand closing on the short sword and whipping it free, bringing it in a downwards arc towards the man that stood over him. It bit at the lower part of his stomach, slipping further downwards, bisecting him at the groin. Maya flinched away. It was... messier... than a gunshot wound.

"Zero," she called to him evenly, "I kind of have a gun to my head."

She was astonished at her own calm. There was a moment of relative silence – as silent as it could get with someone screaming through their death throes, heels kicking against the floor. The room was rife with blood and the stench of it was almost choking her. Zero was poised in a low-crouch, almost on one knee, his sword in his hand.

"I blame you entirely for this," Zero replied and Maya couldn't help but breath a sigh of relief as she saw the assassin lay his blade on the ground, a space before him, then settled down on his knees, hands against his thighs, not quite ready to completely acquiesce. The soldiers moved in warily, one on each side, guns ready and trained on his still form. One of them ordered him to get up. Another was doing the same for Maya and she unfolded herself from the floor, slowly, carefully. Gauging where the clearest position would be and angling herself so that she did not stand between the front windows and her nearest captor.

There was a crack, like ice snapping – only magnified – and everyone in the room flinched instinctively. The inhabitants of Pandora knew what sniper fire sounded like. There was a pause of confusion and Maya's breath felt stopped in her throat, for she knew in another second the shouting would start and it would take only one frayed nerve to put a bullet in her skull. Then there was a second crack, and the man at her back was gone. She heard him impact against the floor and Maya was moving before the body had a chance to settle. Her phase-lock snapped out, catching up the soldier that had managed to remain focused on keeping his rifle trained on Zero, trapping him in place. The assassin surged upwards, forgoing even his sword. He launched himself from the balls of his feet, his right shoulder catching his second guard in the chest and throwing him off his feet – then Zero was on him, throwing his good arm around the man's head, hand closing on his chin. The assassin wrenched and the man dropped, his head lolling at an impossible angle. Maya, for her part, was dropping to the ground, casting about for a weapon, on her toes and one hand flat against the floor for balance.

Then glass shattered overhead. It was like a grenade had gone off, but there was no roar of fire and expanding air – just a shrill screech like metal on metal. And in that shower of glass was a skag and there was a woman on the skag's back, belly against his spine.

Bunny hit the nearest soldier full-on, his serrated face clamping on the man's skull and lifting him into the air. The skag shook, like a dog with a new toy, and the man's body whipped back and forth, his limbs striking his companions and throwing them aside. Then Bunny let go and the body went flying into a wall, dropping to the floor in a wet heap, the face and neck shredded into ribbons. The skag was already latching onto the next soldier. Tasha was darting out towards the door, where the soldiers were attempting to back out, and she ran low-slung, her knives in her hands. She simply ran past the first, giving her wrist a sharp snap, and the man went down – hamstrung. The second she slammed into at waist level, both blades angled up to punch through his chest and into the lungs. Their escape suddenly barricaded by two bodies, the soldiers turned to the skag in the room, but it was too close of quarters, and the skag was too big and moving too fast. They could not get their rifles up and the skag fell in among them, lashing out indiscriminately. Maya was shrinking away from the melee, crowding against the far wall, finding herself huddled up close to Zero. The middle of the room had dissolved into a frenzy of violence, the skag ripping limbs off and bodies open with flashes of white bone snapping free before being washed slick with blood. Then it was done. They were all dead, all those Hyperion men, and Maya could hear Tasha praising Bunny, telling the skag he was such a good boy and could settle down and enjoy his meal now. The words seemed to come across a great distance.

"Maya," Tasha called, "Zero. C'mon now, follow me. Try not to get too close to Bunny and don't make any quick movements."

As tame as the skag was, it was still an animal, and it was still in the throes of bloodshed. The massive beast was settling down now, on its belly in the pool of blood and torn innards, catching up a spare arm in its mouth. Maya carefully eased past, her back against the wall, and Zero followed, his steps hindered by a severe limp. When they reached the hall, Maya attempted to put an arm under his shoulders, but he shrugged it off, keeping one hand on the wall instead for balance.

"Where's Mordecai?" Maya asked.

"Outside the complex, on a ridge. When your communication went dead we figured the worst, so we went on ahead and he got the high ground. Saw you being taken prisoner and then saw a sniper on the far wall, so he took out the sniper and then took out the person holding you. Then Bunny and I moved in."

"Through the gate?"

"No, up and over the wall. My skag is _awesome._"

Maya could hear gunfire now, down in the courtyard below. She gave Tasha an inquiring look and the woman shrugged indifferently.

"Mordecai must've given the order for the rest to move in. I'm going to go help."

She peered at Maya and the siren reluctantly shook her head. She'd had enough for one day. Without a shield, she couldn't risk it.

"Zero is hurt and that short-circuit trick fried my shield," she said, "We'll just hang out here in the hallway."

"Alright. Suit yourself."

The woman turned and walked back to the control room, whistling at her skag. There was a heavy grunt and through the doorway, Maya could see Bunny reluctantly climb to his feet and stand there, muscles trembling, while Tasha climbed on his back once more, her hands tight on his collar and her knees at his ribs. Then she gave a terse command and the skag leapt, through the opposite windows and out into the courtyard beyond. It may have been Maya's imagination, but the cadence of gunfire grew distinctly more erratic after that.

"Well," Maya sighed awkwardly, sliding down along the wall to crouch beside Zero, "Told you surrendering was the right choice."

The assassin had apparently decided that since he and Maya were sitting this out, he could finally collapse. Even then, he still had a strange sort of grace to him. His legs were out, one knee bent, one hand against his hip, the other at his side.

"I don't surrender," Zero replied.

"And look what that got you." She paused, gently pulling his hand away from his hip. "I – uh – thanks for protecting me."

Zero didn't reply. Maya peered at the injury to distract herself from his silence, then stood to go recover her weapon and see if any of the dead soldiers in the control room had med-kits. Two of them did, one containing one of Dr. Zed's all-purpose shots of... something. Adrenaline, most likely, and a good dose of some magic 'don't-bleed-to-death' medication. She gave this to Zero, through the fabric of his suit, then took him by the shoulder and drew him away from the wall, guiding him down to the floor so that he lay on his back. There were bandages in the other med-kit, the kind that would bond partially with the skin.

"Zero," Maya said uncertainly. Salvador had always done this. "I need to cut away some of your suit to get the bullet holes covered."

Still no reply. If it weren't for a sort of tenseness to his muscle, she'd think him unconscious. Maya licked her lips and slipped a thin knife free from the inside of her boot – the blade not even the length of her hand, and eased it into where the fabric had been punched through by the sniper's bullets. It resisted and she put a bit more muscled into the blade, and finally it yielded. Underneath, Zero's skin was slick with blood, stained bright red, and Maya cut a thin slit wide enough to allow her to slip the patch of synthetic skin through. His flesh felt cold beneath her fingers and Maya could see that his skin was white, not in the sense that her own was, but so colorless that it was like dead flesh. She pressed the bandage fast, Zero hissed, and then she drew back, shivering. It took four cuts to his suit, four bandages to cover his injuries. The sniper's bullet had gone through in both places it had hit. When Maya was done, her hands were stained red and Zero had gone still, his head turned to the side. Outside, the gunfire had died down.

"Zero?" Maya asked, sudden fear seizing her. The assassin stirred, slightly, and that was the only answer. She gave a soft sigh.

"Alright," she whispered, "You just rest. I'll stay right here."

He'd protected her and she was still surprised by that. Now it was her turn to protect him. So she sat there, back against the wall, Zero laying still opposite her on his back, with a blood-stained pistol in her hands.


	13. Impossibilities

_Author's Note: I'll be honest - I'm not a shipper. Romance never makes it way into my stories, typically. However, I've gotten enough positive feedback for the subtle MayaxZero stuff going on that I thought I'd better expand on it a bit, even if the result is disappointing._

* * *

Maya almost shot the man Tasha sent to check on them. He was an unfamiliar figure, and it was only the way he walked – the absolute confidence of someone that did not expect to die today – that made her hesitate. When she did, she realized he had the look of a bandit, and that he wasn't making any move to shoot at them. She stood, her muscles stiff, and gave Zero a short glance. He was still, contained in his posture. She couldn't tell if he was just remaining quiet or sleeping. It was.. uncomfortable... seeing him like this. The siren could face her own weaknesses, with a quiet reluctance, granted, but she knew her frailty for what it was and did not fear to know she was merely flesh and blood and could hurt and die. She knew the same weakness afflicted her companions – Axton and Salvador – and more recently Tasha and Mordecai. Human, and prone to all the vulnerabilities that came with it. Zero was different, however. His resolve, his silence, even the distance between himself and everyone around him, was enough to set him outside of what Maya understood. To see him weak, brought low like this; it was jarring. It made her own human frailties seem all the more prevalent.

"Maya, right?" the bandit asked, stopping a short distance away.

He was of average build, heavily muscled with a rifle slung over one shoulder. It didn't quite have the look of a sniper's gun, but she imagined he could get some pretty good accuracy with it regardless. His hair was the color of wet sand and was bound back at the nape of his neck in a ponytail only as long as Maya's thumb. Loose strands hung free about his ears, a careless affection that may very well be deliberate. His clothing was inappropriate for the climate, as his shirt was cut off at the bicep and she could see tattoos lining the skin, winding down in careful spirals. They were feathers, she realized, as he drew closer. Dozens of feathers, like a bird was unwinding its wings from his arms and leaving a trail in its wake. His hands were thick with scars.

"That's me," she replied, "Tasha send you?"

"She did. I'm Samuel."

The name was familiar. Tasha had set him in command of the Carrion Birds while she was away.

"She really trusts you, doesn't she?"

Maya's voice was low and cold. The brothers back on her homeworld had taught her that, how to pitch her voice to give it a deadly edge, to make people quail before her at a word. For the most part, she disregarded their training, as Pandora wasn't really a place for subtle manipulation. Violence was the currency here. However, she didn't have reason to melt Samuel's face off yet, and she had to get her threat in somehow. The bandit lifted his chin slightly at her words, his eyes narrowing in comprehension. He was a smart one, at least.

"She does," he replied demurely, "Mordecai already questioned me over this."

"Did he?"

"Yes. Only he didn't just use words. A knife and that damn bird of his was involved. We had a good heart-to-heart talk, yanno?"

There was a touch of bitterness in his voice. Maya suspected that it wasn't so much over the fact that Mordecai had obviously been a bit overly violent in his concern over Tasha's safety, but rather that no one seemed to believe that he was loyal to the woman. The bandit had no reason to be surprised, really. This was Pandora.

"Oh. Well then. I do have to add that I'll melt your face off if you ever betray Tasha."

"I'm looking forwards to it." He paused. "Tasha wants to move you and Zero to the control room. It'll be the most secure spot once Hyperion starts their retaliation. Tasha and Mordecai are already there. Do you need help with your friend there?"

"He wouldn't let you. I've got it."

Samuel nodded and made no move to help, but neither did he turn to leave, either. Maya knelt by Zero's side, touching him on his uninjured shoulder. The assassin stirred and carefully sat up. There was a restraint to his motions, as if he were holding each careless gesture in check so that the only muscles that moved were the ones that absolutely had to. Then he rocked to his feet, standing a moment with his weight on one side, testing the stiffness in his hip.

"You going to be okay?" Maya asked carefully. Just as she didn't want to think about Zero's frailties, she imagined he didn't want them pointed out.

"Fine," he replied, his words even more clipped than normal, "Bleeding has stopped."

"You, uh, saved my life."

Zero didn't reply. He turned his head to regard Samuel and the bandit gazed back at that glossy black surface of Zero's helm with an expression of careless disinterest. Either he was a very good actor, or he truly didn't give a shit what happened to him for the most part. Maya was inclined to think the latter. Mordecai was scrawny enough that she suspected Samuel could have broken both his arms if their... conversation... had gotten physical, yet apparently the bandit had come off worse. The siren shook her head. She didn't expect Pandora to have complexity.

And then there was Zero. He walked a pace behind her, as the two followed Samuel down the corridor, the arctic wind snapping at her exposed skin through the narrow vents every few yards. The assassin moved slow, his steps even, but he was missing the assuredness he had displayed earlier. Content to let Maya take the lead now. It could be that he thought his role was done – that the infiltration was done and there was no need for him to act in his assumed role. She wanted that to be the case. It was more comforting than the thought that two bullets from a Hyperion sniper could take such a toll.

No. That wasn't it. It wasn't the fact that Zero had been shot that bothered her so. It was that he had taken the bullets for her.

As they reached the doorway to the interior, Maya paused to let Zero pass her by. She remained in the hall with Samuel a moment and the bandit seemed content to linger, seemingly unconcerned with either the siren or the enigmatic assassin.

"I always knew Tasha had contact with the vault hunters," Samuel said, and Maya forced herself to focus on the bandit, "I mean, it was just too convenient that the people that gave Tasha trouble – real trouble, mind you – wound up dead in the next month or so with no indication as to who did it. They started to say she had a pack of wild skags she could call up, but if you looked at the bodies most were dead from a bullet in the skull. Made me suspicious."

"You followed her around?" Maya asked. Samuel was quiet for a moment, looking off down the hallway.

"Some," he finally admitted, "Just to make sure."

"Make sure of what?"

More silence. Then the bandit shrugged away from her, walking off down the hall towards where a staircase led to the inner courtyard.

"I gotta go yell orders at people," he said, "Tasha is busy in the control room, you should go see if she needs you. I'll be waiting for Hyperion reinforcements, feel free to join us and, I dunno, melt faces or whatever it is you sirens do."

Maya watched him go. Curious. But really, it was none of her concern. There was a world at stake here, she could only hope that Tasha knew what she had gotten herself into and that she knew how to handle Samuel. She hadn't the time to figure this one out, nor ensure Tasha's safety more than promising violent retribution. Even then, considering the odds, she couldn't help but wonder if she would be alive to deal it out, should it come to that.

Taking the base was one thing. Holding it long enough for Tediore to run their reprogramming was another.

She found the three waiting in the control room. It was an open space of bare metal walls, save for a poster of Handsome Jack tacked in the dark of one corner, to the right of the door. There appeared to be darts sticking out of his face, one planted at an angle right in his obviously-forced smile. Maya was oddly pleased to see that her own opinions of Jack were shared among his employees, although Maya had to admit that if she had her choice, it'd be bullets being sent towards his face rather than darts. Still. It was something. She almost felt bad for the wanton slaughter of all the Hyperion employees here.

Almost, but not quite.

Zero had stationed himself along the front of the room. There were a number of consoles clustered in a 'U' in the middle of the room, with an empty space before them where the metal of the walls gave way to windows, bowed out at a sharp angle and overlooking the entire complex. Zero rested on one knee along these, his back hunched and one shoulder pressing against the upper pane. His rifle was across one leg and Maya wondered if he intended to shoot from there. It was an excellent vantage point, she had to admit, and she imagined his rifle would be able to punch through the glass. He did not move a muscle when she walked in and reluctantly, Maya tore her gaze away when it became apparent he was not going to acknowledge her presence.

Mordecai and Tasha both were at the consoles, at opposite ends. Tasha was sprawled on the ground, her legs splayed and knees out to either side, her body twisted at an angle and her head and shoulders inside the body of the computer console, a tangle of wires pulled out around her like ribbon. Mordecai was a bit less destructive, preferring to actually utilize the interface provided. The screens that hung from the ceiling, like sheets of ice suspended by filament, were sprayed with graphics. Maps, lists, and other reams and reams of data that as a whole, seemed almost meaningless to Maya. Supply schedules. Personnel assignments. Diagrams of hubs and networks for infrastructures that Maya couldn't even guess their purpose, sprawling through blueprints of buildings and across topographical maps. Mordecai was utterly engrossed by it, and Maya saw that he'd hooked up his tablet to the console and was currently dumping as much as he could onto the slim computer. It seemed there was more to Mordecai than simply being drunken sniper. If all this data had a pattern, she certainly couldn't see it.

Maya moved closer, standing side-by-side with Mordecai, watching the images flash across the screen. His gloved hands moved confidently across the terminal, fingers lightly brushing the surface and directing the movement of files, like orchestrating some great composition. He spared Maya a sideways glance, for only a moment. The lines at the corner of his mouth seemed deeper now, or perhaps it was the light, or a few day's worth of additional beard. Or perhaps Mordecai was simply growing tired, torn here and there by the cruel ambitions of others, never given a moment to stop and savor all that he'd accomplished. Vault hunter, vanquisher of the destroyer. Now that title was stolen and he and his friends were engaged in a running war – severely outmatched, not knowing from day-to-day if they'd prevail in the end.

No rest for the wicked indeed.

"That was a good shot, huh?" Mordecai said, turning his gaze back to the screens.

"It was. Thanks for the save."

"Shit, ain't the first time I've sniped when a friend was on the line. Ya'll get careless when a sniper is watching your back, yanno? Like I'm gonna put a bullet right where it needs to be and save your damn hide."

"You did, though."

"Damn straight I did."

There was a pause and Maya glanced behind her, ensuring that Tasha was entirely engrossed in her work.

"Soooo," Maya drawled softly, "Samuel. Tell me what's up."

The sniper also glanced over at skag-girl, his hands pausing in their work.

"He's infatuated," Mordecai replied in an undertone, "Took some work to drag it out of him though. I might have cracked his ribs."

"Overkill, much?"

"He's a bandit. A bandit that was being evasive. I think my paranoia is justified here. Anyway, he's not really in love with her, exactly – more like... fascinated. I think he'd follow her anywhere, just to see what would happen. I'm not explaining this well."

"No, I get it," Maya replied.

She couldn't help but glance over to where Zero knelt, hands loose on his rifle. She understood just fine, she realized with a sense of detachment. There was a cold sickness in her stomach as she admitted this in some remote part of her mind, and she shoved it away, quickly, before it could take root inside of her.

"It's just damn stupid, is all," Maya said, her words low and harsh, "Tasha isn't suited for – won't ever be -"

The siren inhaled, stopping herself. There was no cause for the anger in her words. No logical reason. Mordecai was watching her now, she realized. Motionless, and watching her from behind those goggles, the rest of the muscles of his face flat and even. It was hard to think of what to say and so she stared down at her hands, stained with grease and blood. Zero's blood. It filled the lines of her palms, painted her fingertips with red shadows. Unconsciously, she raised her fingers to her chest, where the blood had pooled and dried into flakes on her skin and where her shirt was stiff from it. He bled like a human. She almost wished that weren't the case. It'd be easier.

"I see," Mordecai said softly. He turned his head slightly away, licked his lips. "So, I guess things got pretty intense here between Zero and you?"

That cold sickness returned to her stomach and Maya forced herself to remain emotionless on the outside.

"Fuck you," she whispered, and spun on her heel, walking away.

She stalked to the middle of the room and stared out beyond the consoles, through the glass to the courtyard beyond. The bandits had taken up positions along the walls, intending to use those as cover and then turn the inner courtyard itself into a kill pocket. Samuel had some brains about him, if he'd bludgeoned the bandits into some semblance of tactics. It was a hell of a lot more than Tasha would manage, as her idea of tactics was to get in close and stab someone. Bunny was out there, stalking along the base of the walls, pausing here and there to savage a Hyperion body. It wouldn't be long now. Maya could imagine that at this moment, orders were being shouted, Jack was raging in his sanctum, and soon enough the loaders would be deployed – streaking from the sky like the fury of a jealous god.

Maya smiled cruelly. She'd been a goddess, once, and knew that for the lie it was. Jack could play savior all he liked, but sooner or later she would find him and he would answer for all of it, and learn the truth of his delusions – in those scant seconds as the last of the signals in his brain turned off and left him a cooling corpse on the ground.

"Zero," she said, tacitly ignoring Mordecai, "I'm going to go out and join the bandits."

"Shield."

Maya grimaced at his reminder.

"It's cool," she replied, "I'll loot one. There's got to be one that hasn't had a bullet put through it laying around."

She wanted things to go back to normal. This was just a momentary lapse, she was tired and worn thin by stress, and it left her considering things that shouldn't ever be. She felt that – if she kept moving – that these moments would be forgotten in the haze of Pandora, lost in a fog of violence and bloodshed, and wiped out of her memory by the pressing need of what they were trying to accomplish here. They'd return to Sanctuary, with the digistruct network functional again, and she'd either get the bloodstains out of her clothing or find new, shower and wash the tangled mess her hair had become, let it all just fade away as if it had never been. She'd not speak a word of it to Axton or Salvador, never tell them how Zero had crouched over her, keeping her low to the ground so he'd take the sniper's bullet instead of her. Self-sacrifice was not an attribute any of them had attributed to the assassin, and so she'd keep silent, so that no one would ever question why that had happened, and maybe – just maybe – her own disquieting thoughts would still and leave her be.

Some things were just impossible and she'd be a fool to think otherwise.

There was a streak of light, in the corner of her vision. Then the distant vibration of an impact, rattling the panes of glass that Zero crouched among. He straightened, bringing the butt of his rifle up to his shoulder and if it pained him to rest the gun against the gunshot wound, he gave no indication. His movements were almost mechanical. Maya's hand instinctively went to her pistol. In the courtyard, three loaders were unfolding, metal limbs uncurling like the tendrils of a fern. Maya's breath caught in her throat. She'd grab a shield on the way down, and then join the fray. Let the terror and thrill of combat wipe everything but survival from her mind.

"We've started the reprogramming," Tasha announced to the room, "We have to hold this place for half an hour."

Mordecai was moving, unslinging his own rifle and walking towards where Maya was standing by the door.

"Let's go, then," he said, "I'll be out on the wall. Got an itch to scratch."

And he chambered a bullet, the motion instinct by this point. Maya followed him out, heading down the hall towards the stairs, that would lead them down to the wall and then to ground level, where the sounds of combat could already be heard.


	14. Date Night

_Author's Note: My apologies for the severe delay. I got caught up in real life stuff - there's a local writers group I've recently gotten published through as part of an anthology, so there were some events and stuff going on there. Then this week, I'm essentially doing two jobs, so... I'm tired. Really tired. I shouldn't even be writing this, but I did, so here you are. I skimped on description because I'm so stinking tired. And because the battle scene - well - the exciting bit has really happened with Zero saving Maya. So now we're back into absurd humor._

* * *

Jack was not renowned for his leadership qualities. His idea of motivational speeches involved grandstanding and mockery, and it was a struggle to get him to pay attention to anything long enough to sign on the dotted line. It seemed the only time he truly turned his mind to something was when he was either angry or particular ambitious. The former was dangerous, and that was what had focused Jack's attention in on the current situation. He stood in his office, alone, staring at the a viewscreen the size of one wall. A myriad of images was displayed upon it, narrower lists of data along the sides, various viewpoints from remote cameras, and the center was dominated by a satellite image of the data center's courtyard. Jack had gone quiet some time after the assault had started and now watched it, utterly still.

This, too, was unusual. He was not prone to being still, rather, moved constantly with a pent-up, furious energy.

"What the fuck are they after?" he finally spat.

"Unknown," Angel replied. She had found it was best to keep her voice as neutral and detached as possible in these times, when he was so poised. He was only one misstep away from violence – not the cruel, casual kind he was prone to. True savagery.

"I don't understand how these people manage to make such nuisances out of themselves. Or why they fight so damn hard."

His words were quiet. Angel remained silent. Jack was rarely this calm. It would either pass, or morph into something far deadlier. On the screen, the courtyard was a deadly hailstorm of cross-fire, with the entrenched bandits setting up a kill-zone in the middle, in which the loaders were falling. Angel knew with resignation that someone was going to lose their job over this – the targeting system for the loaders was clearly not taking into account tactical awareness. Their job, and most likely, their life. That was how Jack ruled Hyperion.

"How many constructors do we have on hand?" Jack asked.

The information was on the screen to his left, but Jack was not paying attention. He was watching the veritable storm of bullet shred his loaders.

"Two," Angel replied, "All the rest are currently in operation and cannot be deployed."

"Send them both."

"That will leave us without-"

"Send them!"

There was a pause as Angel ran through the launch authorizations. Somewhere, deep inside the orbital space station, massive hydraulics were preparing and bays were emptying of oxygen, opening to space. There seemed to almost be a lull in the fighting, almost as if the bandits could sense a turn in the air. Then – a streak of light – and impact.

"Let them chew on that," Jack murmured.

For a brief moment, Angel considered telling him. It was an instinct drilled into her since a child, that she was to be utterly truthful with Jack, obey him, and do everything in her power to accomplish his goals. It was an effort to bite back what she knew and keep it to herself, to hide her secrets and ignore the instinctual guilt that came with such a thing. Even then, it was more because Jack was so clearly pleased with deploying the constructors, and this was a good thing.

Besides, if Mordecai wanted to dump the entire contents of the data center to his own personal device, she should be wishing him well, not helping Jack stop him. Perhaps he'd find something useful in it.

* * *

Maya ducked instinctively as the ground beneath her trembled. The impact sent duel shock-waves through the concrete and she could feel the vibration through the sole of her boots. So far, the Carrion Birds had done well in repelling Jack's assault, as Samuel's tactics had given them an edge. This was no ordinary bandit gang. They did not meet their opposition on open terrain. They dug in, fortified, and ensured they had the cover, the high ground, and the kill-zone established. There were even a number of snipers along the wall – not nearly as competent as Zero or Mordecai – but the supporting fire was welcome indeed. Maya could not help but wonder what sort of person Samuel had been, before he became a bandit. She had to admit to herself that she enjoyed having the upper hand. Previously, all their encounters with a loader bombardment was while the four vault hunters were on the offensive, and did not have the advantage of terrain.

But now, even with Samuel's careful planning, the battle was about to get difficult. On opposite ends of the field, the two constructors unfolded like squat beetles, spindly legs reaching out and hoisting their metal shells off the ground. The cement was shattered with a spider-web of cracks underneath the impact site of each.

"We're in trouble," Maya said over ECHO to anyone who would listen, as the red eyes of the machines blinked on one after the other.

"Heavy weapons, focus fire on the constructors," Samuel said in response, his tone utterly collected, "Snipers and light weapons, keep on the loaders."

Maya had lost track of him in the melee. He was most likely on the wall, she thought, keeping a vantage on the situation. His orders were too quick, too precise, for someone on the ground. Why didn't Zero ever do something like this for them? He was always the one with the clear view of the battlefield, off sniping from a distance.

This entire affair seemed to be bringing up a lot of questions about Zero, ones she could hardly afford ot be asking at this point in the game. Maya steeled herself, feeling the quickening of adrenaline, and ducked up out of cover. She'd recovered a shield from a body on her way out to the fight and while it was weak, it would at least keep her alive if she were careful. She crouched behind a concrete barrier that the Carrion Birds had arranged parallel to the wall behind her, with another bandit to her right. They were firing in shifts, mechanically falling into a pattern without a word shared between them. He would fire until he was empty, then she would duck up and do the same while he reloaded. They both carried pistols. Further down along the wall was a pair of bandits, both with shotguns. Maya wondered if this, too, was a deliberate move on Samuel's part. The entire gang seemed to be arranged into pairs of complimentary weapons.

Of Bunny, there was no sign. Tasha had called the skag back as soon as the loaders started landing and there were no more humans to kill. As stupidly fearless as the skag was, its inane ferocity was useless against metal. It would only get in the way now.

"So we're light weapons," Maya said to the man next to her as she steadied her gun and took aim on a loader. Its back was to her and she aimed for the joint between its arm and body.

"Indeed," the man replied, his voice somewhat muffled by his mask. It was strange to be talking to one of his kind instead of shooting at. He was reloading with the ease of someone that could do it blindfolded with half a hand missing.

"I kind of want to shoot at the constructors though."

"Best do what Samuel says. He's smart."

"I gathered."

The loader was turning now, ponderously, and as it did it exposed its front to another angle of the kill pocket and someone off to Maya's left finished it off. The machine crumpled in a shower of sparks, hissing like a cat, and behind it Maya could see another loader being pieced together in an array of blue guide-lights by the constructor beyond.

"So you up to anything after this?" the bandit asked, pivoting to rise to one knee, pulling his back away from the concrete barrier. Maya took his place, slouching low, her shoulders flush with the top of the barrier and her head hunched down out of sight.

"Pardon?" She ejected the empty clip from her pistol and it steamed in the arctic air.

"You know," he continued, "We could go get a drink together. I know this place that does moonshine that hasn't killed anyone yet."

"Tempting, but I think I'll pass."

"It's that sniper guy, isn't it? You're together, aren't you?" There was a genuine trace of bitterness in his voice. Maya fumbled the reload and the clip fell uselessly from her fingers. She snatched at it before her temporary bandit partner could notice.

"Sniper – guy?" she replied, trying to sound as casually confused as possible whilst taking fire from loaders.

"You know, Mordecai."

"Oh." She paused. "Sure, let's go with that."

"Dammit, vault hunters get all the girls."

Maya was almost relieved by Samuel's cold voice interrupting their conversation with the announcement that there were surveyors incoming. She rolled to her knees once more, scanning the sky, arms braced on the barrier and pistol hilt wrapped in both hands. The first of the sleek silver shapes streaked over, barely discernible from the clear sky, and Maya snapped her gun up to bear. She led her shots, pathing the movement of her weapon along with the surveyor, and as it turned to make a second pass she fire. The shots lanced through the side of the flyer's body and it faltered, then fell. The impact was somewhere beyond the wall and the thin plume of smoke was the only thing that marked the surveyor's demise.

"Missiles incoming," Samuel called out, "Maya, Brandon, your position."

So that was his name. Maya broke from cover, hardly thinking about it, just reacting to the gut-level instinct that she had to move. Bullets slammed into her shield as the loaders fired on the target that had suddenly presented itself, and then the concussion blast from the missiles picked her off her feet. The world behind her dissolved into a hail of fire and shrapnel, then she was hitting the ground, rolling, and her lungs filled with dust. Something wrapped around both her wrists, painfully tight, and then there was a shuddering impact along her back as she was jerked across the disheveled ground by her arms. She kicked, trying to regain her feet, and flipped herself over as the hands let go. She threw herself the last few feet behind the neighboring barricade, the bandit that had helped haul her out of the line of fire just a few feet ahead of her.

"So you know Brandon and the rest of us are all on an open ECHO channel, right?" the bandit said, chambering a round into his gun and peeking up over the barricade. He was sighting for the constructor itself, his partner doing the same.

"I'm not following," Maya replied. Brandon, for his part, appeared to have ducked right while she dove left and was now on a far barricade, the shattered remains of their previous nest between the two.

"Forget the moonshine," the new bandit said, "I know a place that smuggles rakk ale. I'll buy.

"Can we stop hitting on the siren and start killing the fucking constructors?! Clear the damn channel, people."

For the first time since the battle started, Samuel sounded angry, and all ECHO chatter ceased. This was, Maya reflected, not just the first time she'd ever worked alongside bandits. It was also going to be the last. There was a lull in the action now, as the timing between all the bandits synced up on reloading. It was in this relative quiet that a voice murmured in her ear, along a private ECHO channel.

"Phase-lock the loader in the direct center," Zero's voice said evenly, "Then focus your fire on the far constructor on my mark."

Maya went taunt, her attention focused now, no longer reacting on the instinct of combat. There was a purpose to this. She wasn't simply throwing out bullets and waiting for the battle to be done. The siren exhaled, feeling her power boil in her blood in response. Sometimes, she thought it a living thing inside her, a primal force with a nature separate from her muscles and blood, yet every bit a part of her as her own skin. An alien presence coursing through her mind, whispering of power and secrets, urging her to remake the world as she willed. Sometimes, she felt she could burn the world down around her.

The siren stood, heedless of the necessity of cover. Her power raced along her arm, out through her fingertips, invisible to the naked eye. She gestured and it enveloped the loader that Zero had indicated, encasing it in a sphere of raw energy, and then she pivoted on her heel and brought both arms up to direct the muzzle of her gun towards the squat body of the constructor. The cross-hairs of her sight swam in her vision for a moment, after-effect of the power coursing through her – then resolved themselves, the center dot resting on the red glow of the constructor's eye. She fired, and the retort of a rifle seemed louder than any other weapon on the battlefield. The recoil of her pistol snapped against her gloved hands, a distant shock, and it was almost like she could feel the impact of Zero's bullets as well, his rifle firing in slow, even precision.

Then the phase-lock dwindled and died, and the loader fell free, staggering to the side and Zero's next shot lodged itself into the body of the machine, spinning it around before it was torn apart by a withering assault from the bandits. She had given Zero the line of sight he'd needed, however. The constructor was silent now, it's lone eye flickering, and she could almost feel the charge building inside it as the bullets settled into its hull, short-circuiting the interior and sending sparks all throughout its internal workings. It crumpled, its legs no longer capable of supporting it, and then an explosion punched a hole through its exterior armoring, spitting fire and sparks into a geyser before the cold air quickly ate it up. Then it was silent and dead.

"Just like that, "Samuel said, "Let's get the other one down now, just like that."

* * *

On the station, Jack was snapped out of his motionless fury. He spun on his heel, cursed, threw something at a wall. Kicked his chair over. Then, panting, he whirled to face the screen again, hands balled in fists. It was fortunate he was alone, Angel thought. Very fortunate. He was not a physically imposing man, but his rage made him dangerous, and his position made his underlings frightened, to the point they could not fight back if he turned his ire in their direction.

"Alright," he finally said, inhaling sharply, "I want them fucking dead. That data center is a lost cause, let's get some-"

Angel knew what he was going to say next. Moonshot. Level the area. And she couldn't have that, not like this.

"Someone is hacking the network," she said, interrupting Jack's sentence, "I'm not sure from where."

A lie. It was tight in her chest, to lie to him like this. He deserved it. He deserved that, and so much more. Still. A lifetime of being told what to do, what to think, was difficult to overcome. Her breath was short and the emotionless face on the screen was a facade, a carefully looped image to present a mask of her own to her father.

"Wait, what?" Jack asked, his attention temporarily diverted, "Which network?"

"Ours. The digistruct one. Also, it appears that Mordecai has complete access to the data center's servers."

Jack's resulting bout of profanity bought the vault hunters precious more minutes. Angel waited. Finally, Jack turned his focus back to the matter at hand, breathless with his own outburst. He fixed a false eye on Angel's image on the screen, seemingly oblivious to the unnatural calm it displayed.

"Alright," he said, "Moonshot the base. Stall Mordecai's hack and make sure he isn't streaming that data elsewhere. And shut down the hack!"

"We only have resources to do one of those three," Angel replied, "Pick one."

She wouldn't give him suggestions. She wouldn't tell him that the source of all three incursions was at the same location. Let him flounder, let him hesitate and make the wrong decision. She could only do so much to hurt him, but this was one of those things within her power.

"I – the hack. It's targeting the digistruct network?"

Angel hesitated before answering. There was a delay she could fake, pretend she didn't have the information yet. It would only work for so long before he got impatient, but it bought another minute. On the screen, the second constructor erupted into a gout of flame, half the hull ripped off by the explosion, as if a hand had shorn back the layers of metal and discarded them like an orange peel. Jack did not notice. He was pacing the room now, his back turned.

"It is," Angel confirmed, "Purpose unknown."

"I can't have that. Shut it down, Angel. No – trace the origin first. Find out who is responsible, then shut it down and deploy loaders to their location."

"We're out of loaders for another five cycles."

"Then moonshot them off the face of the planet! Dammit, do I have to think of everything!?"

"No sir," she replied, emotionless as ever, "Tracing."

She, of course, already knew where the signal came from. She knew what it was designed to do. She'd been tracking it since it started and – thankfully – she had to admit she was impressed with its sophistication. There was no identification as to who had created it, but the hack was refined enough that it had to have come from a competition weapons corporation, someplace large enough to have the resources to throw into this and the firepower to back it up if they were discovered and confronted. She wouldn't stop it, of course, but she would identify it.

And then, Jack would be spurred to retaliate. He could only fight so many wars at once, and if he embroiled himself into another one with a rival arms manufacturer... well, that just might give the vault hunters the breathing room they needed.

Angel's screen remained impassive, but far away in her cage, the siren smiled.


	15. Farewells

_Author's Note: My apologies this took so long to write. I got caught up in irl project of dooooom and it sort of ate my entire February. I didn't get to write on anything. It was terrible. Anyway, yeah, this is winding down now. There will be an epilogue, I promise. It should be a good one._

* * *

Aftermath was a curious thing. Maya had seen it plenty of times, the gutted ruins the vault hunters left in their wake, littered with the bodies of the dead and dying. The muted cries until one of the four put the individual out of their misery or they choked on their blood. A somber, desolate thing. That was the aftermath she was familiar with. This, here in the courtyard of the data center, was different. She was unnerved by it and remained at one end, unwilling to approach. In the center, the bandits were dismantling one of the constructors and setting the parts they wrenched free on fire. She was impressed at their creativity, for while the metal on its own would not burn, they had found some gasoline in a storage room and were making liberal use of that. The stink of it hung heavy in the air, mixed with the acrid odor of burning chemical, the lifeblood of the machines. Along the outer wall were more bandits and they had set themselves to dragging the corpses of the Hyperion employees over to the edge and then dropping them, nooses holding them suspended in midair, their bodies twisting in the arctic wind. Most of them were already dead before the bandits dumped them over. Most.

It wasn't until two of the bandits came over to where she sat perched on the body of the other constructor that Maya thought she'd best move inside. They stared up at her, awe painted on their dull faces, and then one pointed awkwardly at the hunk of metal. She'd been pivotal in destroying the second one, or at least, she liked to think so. If nothing else, her siren powers had clearly struck terror in the bandits. Perhaps she'd have worshipers again someday, like Lilith now did. This did not bother her. It was what she'd been trained for, after all.

"So," one of the bandits said, "We kind of want to set that one on fire too."

"I doubt Tasha would appreciate it."

"What?"

"She's a fucking engineering genius, save one of these for her to dismantle. You could get all sorts of cool crap out of it."

"But we _really_ want to set it on fire," the other bandit said and Maya frowned down at him. Both men looked at the ground near their feet under her glare.

"Go find one of the storage lockers," she said, "and grab whatever barrels you find there. Ignite those. From a distance. And outside the walls of the data center."

It seemed like an adequate compromise. The two wandered off and Maya slid off the surface of the constructor, heading for the interior. Jack's resources seemed to be spent, but it would only be a temporary reprieve, and Maya wanted to know how long they had before the second wave of bombardment started. She found Mordecai, Tasha, and Zero still in the control room. There was an image of their Tediore contact up on the main screen and Mordecai was intent on staring him down, hands on his hips. Tasha stood in the background, fretfully picking at a loose end of the bandages that covered her forearms.

"So our preliminary tests have come back with positive results," the man was saying, "I think at this point, we can consider this a success and relinquish control of the data center."

"Sure," Mordecai replied, "And by 'relinquish control', you do mean 'blow the shit out of it' right? Because I'm pretty sure there's a generator around here that will explode nicely."

Tasha turned at Maya's approach and their eyes met.

"Men," Maya sighed at Mordecai's smug glee at the thought of blowing up the data center.

"I don't know, I kind of want to see this place go up in flames too," Tasha replied.

"...I suppose I do too."

"And the payment?" Mordecai was saying. Maya turned her attention back to the screen. This was important.

"Yes yes, we'll credit you the amount. Shall I credit it to you and allow you to do the division between your team?"

"I was kind of hoping to get the bounty for each person," Mordecai replied.

"Yeah," Maya said, stepping forwards, "We busted our asses for you."

"No," the man replied coldly, "We're only paying out the one bounty. You provided one piece of information. Besides, I think putting Pandora on the protected Tediore channel should more than compensate. Enjoy having your digistruct network back."

The screen went blank and for a moment, there was silence.

"What a fucking prick," Mordecai hissed.

Maya shook her head and stepped away, open a channel, direct to Lilith. The other siren did not take any time to respond.

"Try it," Maya said, "The network. Just try it somewhere."

A long pause, some noise in the background. Then – shouts. Roland laughing somewhere in another room. Maya had to laugh too, for she knew what this meant before Lilith even confirmed it. They were saved – or at least, one step closer to salvation.

"Come on back to Sanctuary," Lilith said, "Good job, everyone. We're done here."

Mordecai laughed, a soft chuckle that reminded Maya eerily of the dark humor he affected while sniping, and shook his head slowly, hooking his thumbs in his belt. For a moment, he just looked at the ground, then he raised his head and regarded Tasha for a moment. The woman did not seem to share in the excitement of the moment. Her face was drawn tight, her hands clutched at the fabric of her shirt at her stomach.

"So you're going back now, right?" Tasha whispered.

"Not to Sanctuary," Mordecai replied, "But yeah, I gotta leave. Gotta decipher this data I stole and I think I gotta steal an encryption key for that. Couldn't get one off this computer. So yeah. I'm leaving."

"And I have a bandit gang to lead now," Tasha replied. She stared down at her hands for a moment. "Mordecai. Am I going about this right?"

"I haven't a fucking clue, Tasha," he whispered, "I wonder the same thing about myself. But we're still alive, so maybe we are."

The girl crumpled forwards, catching up against Mordecai, dissolving into tears. The sniper was still a moment before wrapping his arms around her bony shoulders, holding her close to his chest while she sobbed incoherently. He stared up over her head, at the wall, his goggles hiding anything that might be there in his eyes.

There was a touch at Maya's shoulder. Zero was standing by, hunched with exhaustion, and Maya turned to follow him out of the room. Neither of them should be there. The two walked away, down the corridors, side-by-side. Maya walked at a slow pace and Zero seemed content to keep it. She found it was difficult to form words now and wondered how long it would be like this, that she would have this twisting at her stomach each time they were around each other, and if he could see it in the lines of her face.

"I, uh," Maya finally tried, "I don't think I like this infiltration thing much."

"It can be dull. The waiting."

"Yeah. The waiting." She inhaled sharply. "Let's not do it again anytime soon, okay?"

She saw his hands move, dropping to where the bullets had punched through him. It would take some time to heal. Maya was amazed he was even on his feet at all, but that only spoke to Zero's resilience. It was either an incredible will that kept him going, or something else that she couldn't place. He seemed so fragile – tall and thin like he was – but that was an illusion. Zero had a lot of them, it appeared.

Then his hands fell to his waist and his fingers closed over the hilt of his sword. He drew it up before him and the blade shivered into reality, pale blue in the artificial light of the hallway, and for a moment both vault hunters paused in their tracks to look at it. Another flick of Zero's wrist, and the blade vanished, and the hilt was returned to its rightful place.

"Yes," Zero agreed, "Let's not."

And he walked away. Maya remained standing there, wondering if there was more to that statement than it seemed, or if she was just desperately hoping it was so. There were just some things that just couldn't be.

* * *

They left the complex ablaze, even as the second wave of loaders smashed into the flaming ruins. The generator had taken out nearly half the facility and as they drove away, the remains of the wall slumped and then crumbled down the slope, triggering an avalanche along the side of the mountain as it went. The cloud of snow joined the plumes of smoke, twining together in the air. Maya was intensely thankful that they were driving on clear roads, in the opposite direction, as the roar of the descending snow dwarfed the crackle of flames and the lingering explosions as something flammable caught here and there.

There was a fast travel station not far from the base of the mountain. Zero and Maya would make use of it to return to Sanctuary, then Mordecai would go his separate way with his runner, and Tasha would return to her new homebase with her gang members. They had a lot of rebuilding to do. Strapped to the back of one of the runners was the body of the constructor, and Tasha was apparently already plotting on how to make use of its parts. There wasn't much talk on the way down. The roads were dangerous, narrow, and everyone was worn with exhaustion. The adrenaline of combat had worn off and there was only bone-numbing weariness now, worse for Maya and the other three, who had been going for days on end with only snatches of sleep here and there.

No rest for the wicked indeed. It seemed to be a reoccurring theme for her life.

No one seemed inclined for long goodbyes. Tasha just awkwardly waved and Maya carefully gave Bunny a pat on the head. The skag made to lick her in return and Tasha quickly shot a command in the skag's direction, and he backed down, cowed. Zero stood off on his own, ignoring the entire thing, and Mordecai just nodded in Maya's direction.

"We'll see each other soon, I'm sure," he said, "I'll send the intel by way of Bloodwing when I get it. She can carry it in a collar, can't you girl? Whose my beautiful bird?"

And that was it. There were some suggestive shouts from the bandits as they drove off, hanging onto the sides of their vehicles, and Maya answered them by winging a few bullets in their general direction. This only seemed to encourage their enthusiasm. Then, the runners were off down the road, quickly fading out of eye-shot and the world around them grew quiet again.

"Time to go, then," Maya said, half to herself.

Zero made no reply, but the scrape of his boots against the cement that surrounded the fast travel platform told her enough. She turned to go as well, coming up beside him at the terminal. He was programming in his identification and destination, long fingers tracing deftly on the holographic screen.

"Zero," Maya said, watching his movements, "I think I need to say something here-"

"I know," he interrupted, quiet, emotionless.

"No, I'm not sure you do-"

Again, he interrupted, pausing in his movements and his helmet pivoted to face her square on.

"I know," he said and this time his words were firm and left no room for argument.

Something broke inside her. Maya pushed herself up, onto her tiptoes, and she pressed her lips to the cold surface of his helm, near where his chin should be. Then her hand found the console, she keyed in the final confirmation, and fell back, away from him as the digistruct took over and he was rendered immaterial, taken away from her. Back to Sanctuary. She raised a finger to her mouth. The cold had cracked her dry lips and there was just a faint tendril of blood there, quickly gone. This was it, then. He knew and it had changed nothing. She inhaled, tasting the freezing air, and hating it. She was so tired of the cold.

She knew, without even asking, that neither of them would speak of what had happened here. They'd just carry on as they had, saving the world, fighting off Handsome Jack and waiting for the day he knelt before them and they could put a bullet in his head and end it all. Zero would snipe, watching over all of them, and she'd do her siren thing. Nothing more. And after?

There might not even be an after.

Resolutely, Maya punched in her own identification code and selected her destination. There'd be one hell of a party going on back in Sanctuary and Maya did not want to miss out. She could worry about what was to happen next some other time, when she'd had a chance to drink and sleep and forget.

No rest for the wicked, but sometimes there was a reprieve. Maya punched the final confirmation and the light whisked her away.


	16. Epilogue

Angel hung suspended in her prison of light, watching the images flash all around her with a sense of satisfaction. She'd done exactly as Jack had asked – traced the virus, found its source. And, predictably, he had retaliated. Now, the results of that were displayed all around her as numbers and data and images, flitting past her almost too fast to be understood. She was used to this, however, from years and years of practice. She could process the information and know what it was and what it meant.

And what it meant made her very happy indeed.

The committee on data standards and security was meeting in less than twenty-four hours and Hyperion would not have a strong enough case to oppose the measures Tediore wanted to introduce. The new protocols would be passed unanimously and some people would be much richer for it due to the bribes the opposing weapons manufacturer had paid out. Hyperion had underbid for those votes, due to some conveniently bad intelligence. Jack had been furious, of course. He had yelled at her, then fallen into that quiet way he got when he remembered her mother and what had happened. When he looked at her as if she were no longer human. Perhaps she wasn't. Angel had found that question tiresome and no longer cared. All that mattered was the end-game, and it seemed to be progressing nicely.

He pinned his blame on the Pandorans, of course, but his ire at them was nothing new. Little change there. But he had also pinned the blame for the virus where it belonged – as Angel had traced the source just like an obedient daughter should – and put it at Tediore's doorsteps. Now, before her, flitted the first casualty reports of Hyperion's strike against Tediore. Just a few 'accidental' incidents, of course. Nothing that couldn't be explained with misinformation and excuses. The message was clear enough though. Hyperion did not want Tediore interfering with Pandora – or anything else – again. A few destroyed factories with the employees massacred was a polite way of getting the message across. Of course, Tediore wouldn't stand for that. The proper looking official that had contacted Hyperion a few hours earlier had made that quite clear. So very proper. Very... neat. Refined. And utterly cold, his words carefully picked – such civil words carrying a message of destruction and bloodshed. Safeguards, he had said. Tediore would take measures to protect their property and if there was collateral damage, well, that was the price of business. And oh, business would be bloody indeed. Tediore had already increased the number of shipments towards Pandora and she would be sure to report that fact to Jack and let him take the insult as it was intended. Things would only escalate from there.

And while the war ramped up between Tediore and Hyperion and both forces suffered the 'collateral damage' of 'security measures', it would give Pandora the reprieve she needed. Perhaps it would be enough. Angel could only hope that it was.

This was her end-game to play.

* * *

The dust swirled around the banners and for a long time, Tasha just stood there and watched them. Her insignia flying over the walls, half-built, out of the remains of the old base. Her home now. Her people. Somehow, it felt right. She'd been running for so long, she realized, and now – now all that was gone. She had something terrible inside her, a curse her mother had passed along and that her surrogate father and all those brothers of hers had fostered. Blood and violence and fire. This was her birthright. She inhaled, tasted a metallic tang from the oil that puddled nearby from the half-dismantled constructor. She'd built gravestones out of its hull, used a blowtorch to etch the name of her mother on it.

It wouldn't be easy, she knew. She was so small and there was still so much fear inside her. There was that madness, locked away in the back of her head, but she thought, perhaps, that she could learn to control it. Release it only when it needed to take hold. She thought this was what Mordecai did with his own sort of madness, that cavalier hate and anger, that spark that would never bend and never break. Keep it there, locked away, until a moment when it had to be turned loose upon the world. Her thin fingers caressed the hilt of her knives. Yes. This is what she would do, and maybe, she would be able to retain something of herself despite it all.

She turned and whistled. Bunny came scrambling up from where he lay a short distance away, loping over and crouching low so she could swing herself up onto his back. She settled herself, holding fast to his collar, and then turned to face the assembled bandit gang. There was paint on their faces – soot and grease – and those with masks had tied black armbands around their upper arms. Before them in the space between Tasha and the rest of the gang, was a body. A Hyperion body, to be precise. She had cut open his chest and torn out his heart with her own hands. The blood stained her bandages all the way up to her elbows. It was a more fitting tribute to leave on her mother's grave than flowers.

"Carrion Birds!" she cried, "Hyperion slaughtered our brothers. They see these losses as the simple cost of operating on Pandora – the collateral damage of a hostile world. Well, it's time to push these acceptable losses to a level they aren't prepared for. Remember – this is not a pitched battle. We hit them, we keep their attention focused on the firefight, and I sabotage their grid and we get out before the entire complex goes sky-high."

She paused.

"Then, we kill anyone that tries to escape the inferno. Those fuckers will burn. Move out!"

And as a whole, the gang scattered for their vehicles. She may be a bandit leader now, but she intended to make Mordecai proud. He'd tried to shield her, she knew, but the time for that was past. She'd write her name in Pandora's bloody history, one way or another.

* * *

Maya woke sometime in the night, late, when everything in Sanctuary seemed to be shut down and even the people straggling home from Moxxi's bar were quiet. She wasn't certain what woke her, but her fingers clutched instinctively for a weapon, then fell still as she realized the room she bunked in was silent and seemingly empty. She exhaled, slowly, and tried to think what had brought her to awareness. A dream, perhaps? No. Something else. Something half-remembered, in that moment between waking and sleep. A touch. Fingers, thin and light, along the side of her face. And then a pressure, against her cheek, near the line of her jaw. Lips. A soft kiss, so light and gentle and cold, and then it was gone and she was awake, laying here in this silent and empty room.

It could have been a dream. A wistful dream, something she wanted so badly in that darkness of her mind she could not acknowledge that it imprinted a phantom memory upon her. A wild imagining, a false reality.

Maya squeezed her eyes shut tight and burrowed into her pillow. No. It had to be real. That was what she would choose to believe, if only because that darkness inside her gave her no other choice, clawing at her, demanding that something give. This would have to be enough. But...

"Someday," she whispered into the emptiness, hoping, somehow, that there was someone listening.

* * *

_Author's Note: That last bit exists only because of reader feedback. I am not one for romance and the entire MayaXZero stuff is only because people were asking for it. Well done, everyone. You changed my mind. It's not hard to do, I'm very suggestible._

_Now, some last-minute things. If you enjoyed this story, I ask that you look me up on deviantArt and fictionpress. My username is fainting-goat on both websites. The reason I say this is because I won't be writing fanfiction for a little while - I've got some personal projects with my own worlds I've been growing obsessed with. Check them out. I promise they'll be as good as this fanfic and one of them falls into the sci-fi category. Seriously, go check out my original stuff. I work on it a lot harder than my fanfiction._

_And thanks for reading. Been a fun ride._


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